UC-NRLF 


1D3 

monograpn  ouppiemeni, 


No,  3,  October,  1896, 


THE 


Psychological  Review 


EDITED 


J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


J.  MARK  BALDWIN 
PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY 


WITH  THE  CO-OPERATION  OF 

ALFRED  BINET,  ECOLE  DBS  HAUTES-ETUDES,   PARIS;  JOHN  DEWEY,  UNIVERSITY  OF 

CHICAGO;    H.  H.   DONALDSON,    UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO;  G.  S.  FULLERTON 

UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA;    WILLIAM  JAMES,  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY; 

JOSEPH  JASTROW,  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN;    G.  T.  LADD,  YALE 

UNIVERSITY;  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG,  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY; 

M.  ALLEN  STARR,  COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS, 

NEW    YORK;  CARL  STUMPF,  UNIVERSITY,  BERLIN; 

JAMES  SULLY,  UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE,  LONDON. 

/  < 


The 

Mental  Development 

of  a 

Child 

By 

Kathleen  Carter  Moore 


PUBLISHED  BI-MONTHLY  BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK;  AND  LONDON. 


GIFT  OF 
Author 


EDUCATION  OFPT. 


Monograph  Supplement.  ;J  ;'%;•$•,  October,  1896. 

THE       ;/,  :    ;;"{';:'/:'.::/> 

Psychological  Review 

EDITED  BY 

].  McKEEN  CATTELL  J.  MARK  BALDWIN 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY 

WITH  THE  CO-OPERATION  OF 

ALFRED  BINET,  ECOLE  DES  HAUTES-ETUDES,   PARIS;   JOHN  DEWEY,  UNIVERSITY  OF 

CHICAGO;    H.  H.   DONALDSON,    UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO;  G.  S.  FULLERTON, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA;    WILLIAM  JAMES,  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY; 

JOSEPH   JASTROW,  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN;    G.  T.  LADD,  YALE 

UNIVERSITY;   HUGO  M0NSTERBERG,  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY; 

M.  ALLEN  STARR,  COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS, 

NEW    YORK;  CARL  STUMPF,  UNIVERSITY,  BERLIN; 

JAMES  SULLY,  UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE,  LONDON. 


The 

Mental  Development 

of  a 

Child 

By 

Kathleen  Carter  Moore 


PUBLISHED  BI-MONTHLY  BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK;  AND  LONDON. 


& 


EDUCATION  DEPT. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


It  is  unavoidable,  yet  to  be  regretted,  that  fuller  biblio- 
graphical references  do  not  accompany  this  work.  In  the 
presence  of  such  a  defect  I  must  not  omit  an  acknowledgment 
of  indebtedness  to  Professor  Preyer1  and  to  Professor  Wundt,2 
from  whose  works,  more  than,  from  anything  else  which  I  have 
read,  have  been  drawn  the  inspiration  and  enlightenment  which 
enabled  me  to  carry  out  my  observations. 

Mr.  Moore  has  given  me  many  suggestions  and  much  help 
in  the  corroboration  of  observations — invaluable  aids  in  the 
collection  of  facts. 

1Die  Seele  des  Kindes,  translated  and  condensed  by  Miss  Emma  Marwedel, 
and  appended  to  her  book,  Conscious  Motherhood. 
2  Physiologische  Psychologic. 


578046 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


Prefatory  Note Hi 

Introduction i— 7 

PART  I. — MOVEMENTS. 

Prelim  inary 8— 1 1 

Section  i,  Habits  12-23 

A  Personal  Habit 12-15 

Grasping1  and  allied   Habits ,15-23 

Section  2,  Voluntary  Movements 23-32 

Section  3,  Inhibitory  Movements 3 2-35 

Section  4,  Automatic  Movements 35~37 

Section  5,  Movements  of  Emotional   Expression 37~42 

Section  6,  .Reflex  Movements 42~43 

Summary 43~44 

PART  II. — SENSATIONS. 

Section  i,  Sight , 45~6o 

Observations  on  the  Development  of  Visual  Percep- 
tion   45-50 

Vision,  general  discussion 50-60 

Section  2,  Hearing 60-72 

Section  3,  Touch , 72-82 

Section  4,  Taste 82-83 

Section  5,  Smell 83-84 

PART  III.— IDEAS. 

Section  i,  Mental   Development 85-105 

Section  2 ,  Time 1 06-1 07 

Section  3,  Distance,  Direction  and  Magnitude 107-112 

Section  4,  Notes  on  the  Recognition  and  Interpretation  of  Pic- 
tures  112-114 

PART  IV. — LANGUAGE. 

Section  i,  Sounds 115-120 

Section  2,  Words 120-131 

Section  3 ,  Sentences 131-137 

With  ten  illustrative  tables. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  attitude  of  mind  in  which  an  observer  approaches  the 
child  must  exert  an  important  influence  upon  the  interpretation 
of  that  which  she  observes.  In  imagination  she  may  pro- 
ject herself  into  the  infant's  life,  regarding  him  as  a  bit  of  hu- 
manity, potentially  rich  in  thoughts  and  emotions  whose  mani- 
festations are  to  be  met  with  in  any  form  of  activity  whatsoever. 
The  unfolding  germs  of  mental  life,  she  may  be  inclined  to  iden- 
tify as  the  seed  leaves  of  a  glorious  plant.  Such  an  attitude  is 
not  conducive  to  an  impartial  interpretation  of  facts.  To  read 
too  much  between  the  lines  may  obscure  the  true  meaning  of 
the  text.  On  the  other  hand,  an  observer  may  watch  the  child 
with  intelligent  interest  to  learn  what  she  can  of  the  processes 
of  development.  She  weighs,  sifts  and  classifies ;  she  regards 
the  child  as  a  child,  and  not  as  a  diminutive  man.  It  is  obvious 
that  a  well  proportioned  mixture  of  two  such  positions  would 
give  a  basis  upon  which  to  accomplish  most.  She  who  is  so 
profoundly  imbued  with  the  love  of  her  subject  that  nothing  is 
too  trivial  to  evoke  a  sympathetic  response,  yet  in  whom  the 
habit  of  reflection  is  so  strong  that  no  observation  can  be  allowed 
to  pass  unmeasured  and  unclassified,  will  be  the  one  to  gather 
the  greatest  harvest  of  facts,  to  estimate  justly  the  value  of  each, 
and  its  relation  to  all. 

A  condition  of  equal  moment  to  that  of  the  observer  is  that 
of  the  observed — the  subject.  Everything  must  be  subservient 
to  the  comfort  and  welfare  of  the  child.  Over-excitement  and 
fatigue  are  injurious  to  the  child  ;  and,  as  much  intercourse  with 
people  produces  both  excitement  and  fatigue,  observations  must 
sometimes  be  brought  to  a  standstill  when  one  feels  oneself  on 
the  verge  of  important  disclosures.  Nor  can  the  young  child 
always  be  made  to  act  under  a  given  set  of  conditions.  The 
chances  are  that  he  may  not  respond  to  one's  cleverly  arranged 
experiment. 


^  tc.  c.t. INTRODUCTION. 

Personally  I  have  constantly  been  impressed  by  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  making  tests.  Most  of  my  attempts  to  obtain  results 
through  experiments  have  proved  signal  failures.1  I  early  gave 
up  the  idea  of  obtaining  the  bulk  of  facts  with  the  help  of  ex- 
periments, and  occupied  myself  with  the  observation  of  the 
phenomena  of  development,  as  they  one  by  one  arose  and  assum- 
ed more  generous  proportions  and  complicated  relations.  Nor  did 
I  find  any  dearth  of  material.  I  can  say  now,  with  a  vast 
quantity  of  classified  facts  at  hand,  that  the  method  which  I 
employed  holds  its  own  with  any  other.  Every  verified  obser- 
vation made  under  known  and  carefully  noted  conditions,  is  as 
valuable  as  an  observation  made  under  prearranged  conditions. 
But  the  facts  are  more  unwieldy  to  handle,  and  it  requires  end- 
less patience  to  get  them. 

In  brief,  my  method  comprised : 

A. — The  observation  of  all  manifestations  of  activity. 
B. — The   observation  of  the  conditions  under  which  a 

given  manifestation  occurred. 
C. — The  prompt  recording  of  A  and  B. 

D. — The  observation  of  all  manifestations  of  change. 
E. — The  observation  of  the   conditions  under  which  a 

given  manifestation  of  change  occurred. 
F. — The  prompt  recording  of  D  and  E. 

The  facts  obtained  from  I.  gave  data  from  which.to  study  the 
formation  of  habits,  the  fixed  lines  of  activity.  Those  ob- 
tained from  II.  afforded  a  basis  for  a  study  of  expansion  and 
development.  Beside  this,  summaries  were  written  out  at 
stated  intervals  which  described  and  reviewed  the  mental  condi- 
tion of  the  child  at  given  periods.  The  first  of  such  descrip- 
tions summarized  the  advancement  in  all  lines  of  activity. 
Later,  when  there  was  so  much  to  record,  it  was  found  more 
satisfactory  to  confine  a  summary  within  the  limits  of  a  definite 
set  of  activities.2  Tendencies  also  were  carefully  noted. 

1 1  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  to  oppose  the  employment  of  the  experi- 
mental method.     Doubtless  my  own  want  of  ingenuity  in  devising  experiments 
had  much  to  do  with  my  lack  of  success. 
2  Language,  association,  etc. 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

No  observation  has  been  incorporated  into  the  body  of  facts 
out  of  which  this  story  of  development  is  woven,  which  has  not 
received  corroboration  from  subsequent  observations.  Excepting 
those  of  the  first  seven  days,  in  which  I  was  greatly  assisted  by 
my  husband,  and  twelve  sentences  recorded  in  the  second  year, 
all  observations  herein  presented  were  made  and  recorded  by 
myself.  In  one  respect,  my  observations  sometimes  lacked  com- 
pleteness. As  this  has  been  the  only  infant  mind  whose  unfolding 
I  have  carefully  followed,  I  failed  to  recognize  in  all  cases  the  first 
appearance  of  each  advancing  step ;  hence,  my  time  record, 
though  always  approximately  accurate,  is  sometimes  at  fault  by 
a  few  days,  or  even  a  week ;  I  have  therefore  adopted  the 
custom  of  recording  dates  by  weeks  instead  of  by  days,  after 
the  sixtieth  day.  Fortunately  in  such  cases,  in  pursuance  .of 
the  plan  summed  up  in  II.,  there  existed  in  the  journal  a  register 
of  the  gradations  by  which  the  higher  plane  had  been  reached. 

Notes  of  the  reactions  of  the  child  to  the  normal  surround- 
ings are  the  material  most  of  value  in  such  a  study  as  the  pres- 
ent one.  But  such  material  does  not  easily  lend  itself  to  the 
manufacture  of  quantitative  tables.  In  writing  out  my  results, 
I  have,  where  tabulation  was  difficult,  arranged  series  of  typi- 
cal observations  in  a  progressive  form.  These  have  the  advan- 
tage of  placing  before  the  reader  facts  from  which,  if  he  so 
choose,  he  may  independently  draw  his  own  conclusions. 
They  have  a  further  advantage.  I  have  ventured  to  hope  that 
some  mother  wishing  to  understand  her  growing  child,  and 
eager  to  be  in  close  sympathy  with  the  pulsations  of  baby  life, 
might  seek  assistance  in  these  pages,  and  I  knew  that  the  rec- 
ord of  concrete  cases  would  be  of  help  to  her. 

The  course  of  my  child's  development  has,  I  believe,  been  a 
normal  one.  He  suffered  but  little  from  interference,  and  was 
never  stimulated  to  premature  action.  He  was  accustomed  to 
playing  alone.  Especial  care  was  taken  not  to  teach  him  the 
tricks  which  are  commonly  taught  to  babies ;  but  some  he  did 
learn.  He  heard  neither  '  baby  talk '  nor  any  of  the  set  phrases 
which  are  regarded  as  suitable  to  the  comprehension  of  small 
children.  When  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  be  taught 
habits  essential  to  his  welfare,  no  pains  were  spared.  Regular 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

hours  of  feeding,  sleeping,  etc.,  were  maintained.  Good  health 
and  rapid  growth  have  uniformly  been  his. 

The  period  of  infancy  is  said  to  extend  over  the  first  two  years 
of  life.  In  order  to  give  an  introductory  outline  of  the  move- 
ment and  direction  of  development,  I  have  subdivided  infancy 
into  four  periods,  each  of  which  is  characterized  by  the  vigorous 
growth  of  some  form  of  activity.  These  are  no  artificial  divis- 
ions made  for  purposes  of  convenience.  The  close  of  one  period 
overlapped  the  beginning  of  its  successor,  but  the  respective 
high-water  marks  were  clearly  distinguishable. 

The  development,  practice,  and  use  of  the  sensory  apparatus 
belonged  primarily  to  the  first  year,  while  the  formation  of  con- 
cepts and  the  acquirement  of  language  were  characteristic  of 
the  second  year,  as  speech  and  action  daily  served  to  show. 
The  four  periods  have  been  designated  accordingly  as  those 

1.  Of  seeing. 

2.  Of  feeling. 

3.  Of  examination. 

4.  Of  speaking. 

Three  of  the  four  periods  were  completed  within  the  first 
year ;  the  fourth  extended  over  the  entire  second  year.  The 
first  was  of  four  months'  duration,  beginning  at  birth.  Sight 
cannot  be  said  to  have  been  more  active  during  this  time  than 
later,  but  it  was  certainly  more  active  in  proportion  to  the  activ- 
ity of  the  other  senses  than  at  any  subsequent  period.  The 
child  was  entertained  almost  exclusively  by  what  he  saw.  At 
the  close  of  the  fourth  month,  he  had  learned  to  distinguish 
some  sounds  and  to  localize  them  to  a  certain  extent.  Muscle 
and  skin  sensation  had  also  developed  considerably  during  the 
four  months,  and  he  had  acquired  some  control  over  his  own 
body.  Concerning  taste  and  smell,  I  found  little  to  record.  The 
point  which  I  wish  to  make  in  thus  referring  to  the  degrees 
of  development  which  other  senses  had  respectively  attained 
is,  that  of  all  senses  sight  was  the  one  whose  objects  engen- 
dered interest,  engaged  attention,  stimulated  effort  and  furnished 
material  for  a  later  growth  of  ideas.  I  have  called  this  period 
that  of  seeing,  wishing  to  make  a  distinction  between  seeing 
and  active  looking,  which  latter  term  is  too  closely  related  to 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

examination  to  express  the  mental  attitude  of  the  child  during  the 
four  months  in  question. 

At  three  months  of  age,  the  child  for  the  first  time  was  ob- 
served to  follow  with  his  eyes  his  own  reaching  and  grasping 
hand.  From  this  time,  the  ability  to  reach  for  and  grasp  objects 
developed  rapidly.  By  the  end  of  the  fourth  month  he  took 
pleasure  in  feeling  of  all  sorts  of  things  which  came  within  his 
reach,  from  his  clothing  and  parts  of  his  own  body  to  the  balls 
of  the  first  Froebelian  gift.  Gradually  the  desire  to  have  and 
to  finger  things  developed,  until  the  pleasures  of  sight  alone 
were  no  longer  sufficient,  but  had  to  be  supplemented  by  the 
satisfactions  of  touch.  The  second  period  has  been  called  that 
of  feeling.  At  first  glance,  the  term  may  seem  too  general ; 
but  there  is  no  other  which  fits  so  well.  Either  contact  or 
touch  would  be  too  specific ;  for  I  wish  to  include  in  the  term, 
sensations  from  the  whole  series  of  activities  involving  the  use 
of  muscles,  bones  and  skin.  All  general  bodily  activity  gave 
him  pleasure  so  long  as  it  fell  short  of  fatigue.  The  ability  to 
recognize  and  localize  sounds  increased  in  a  marked  degree. 
But  feeling  was  undoubtedly  the  source  from  which  the  child 
derived  most  during  his  second  period.  When  sitting  became 
a  habit,  feeling  gave  place  to  examination. 

The  foundations  of  the  more  developed  activities  of  the  third 
period  were  laid  by  the  continual  looking  and  feeling  of  the 
first  seven  months.  During  the  five  months  covered  by  the  third 
period  the  child  was  developing  along  all  lines.  He  was  chiefly 
engaged  in  acquiring  control  of  his  own  body,  and  in  the  exami- 
nation of  common  objects.  He  gained  considerable  knowledge 
of  familiar  household  objects  through  handling  them,  placing 
them  in  all  sorts  of  positions,  putting  together  and  taking  apart. 
He  learned  to  sit  alone, to  raise  himself  to  a  sitting  position,  to  pull 
himself  upon  his  feet,  to  stand  and  to  step  forward  with  assist- 
ance in  balancing,  to  roll,  to  get  on  his  hands  and  knees,  to 
creep,  to  feed  himself  from  the  bottle,  and  with  bread  also.  He 
learned  to  use  a  few  words  and  to  understand  a  number.  He 
showed  himself  capable  of  forming  some  abstractions.  And  the 
primary  links  were  formed  of  that  chain  which,  in  later  life, 
binds  each  of  us  in  some  measure  to  his  social  inheritance. 


6  INTR  OD  UC  TION. 

The  acquirement  of  language  was  the  conspicuous  feature 
of  the  fourth  period.  At  its  beginning — at  the  close  of  the  first 
year — the  child  had  a  vocabulary  of  but  few  words,  though  a 
language  of  gesture  aided  him  in  making  known  his  wants ;  at 
its  close  he  commanded  enough  of  language  to  place  him  in  in- 
telligent communication  with  other  persons.  He  learned  during 
the  fourth  period  to  walk  alone,  to  get  upon  his  feet  without 
pulling  himself  up  by  the  arms,  to  run,  to  walk  on  knees,  toes 
or  heels,  to  go  up  and  down  the  stairs  or  an  inclined  plane,  to 
climb  on  the  furniture  and  to  take  care  of  himself  in  all  ordinary 
situations.  He  performed  a  number  of  acts  requiring  nice  mus- 
cular adjustments.  The  range  of  perception  became  extended 
with  astonishing  rapidity.  New  ideas  were  formed  and  old 
ones  modified.  In  short,  change  and  progress  occurred  every- 
where during  the  second  year. 

There  are  some  other  features  of  development  which  should 
be  considered  in  such  a  general  review  as  this.  Progress,  un- 
interrupted as  its  course  was,  still  had  seasons  of  noticeable  ac- 
celeration and  intervals  of  extraordinary  slowness.  I  was  unable 
to  discover  what  causes  governed  the  varying  rate  of  advance- 
ment. A  known  physical  cause  acted  as  a  retarding  agent  only 
once  ;  namely,  when  a  bad  cold  made  it  prudent  to  keep  the  child 
from  the  floor  just  as  he  was  learning  to  walk.  He  suffered  no 
real  set-back  then,  merely  a  postponement  of  accomplishment. 

The  first  of  the  seasons  of  rapid  development  began  on  the 
thirty-fifth  day.  It  was  ushered  in  by  a  day  of  awakening,1  upon 
which  the  child  seemed  extraordinarily  bright  and  intelligent. 
His  face  wore  an  expression  of  alertness  and  he  evinced  a  new 
interest  in  objects.  He  looked  continually  at  persons,  smiled 
repeatedly  at  them,  and  responded  to  words  addressed  to  him 
by  various  cooings  and  gurglings.  When  the  child  was  three 
and  a-half  months  old,  another  peculiarly  bright  day  occurred. 
Upon  this  day  also  he  seemed  unusually  alert.  He  appeared 
to  understand  what  was  being  done  for  him,  and  fell  naturally 
into  the  scheme  of  regularity  which  I  had  tried  to  maintain. 
From  that  day  he  composed  himself  for  sleep  when,  at  the  hour 
for  his  nap,  he  was  laid  upon  his  bed. 

1  Preyer  describes  such  a  day. 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

The  third  period  of  rapid  development  occurred  in  the 
eleventh  month.  The  ability  to  creep,  acquired  within  a  few 
days,  ushered  in  another  means  of  gaining  perceptions,  so  that 
within  two  weeks  the  child  seemed  to  have  learned  a  great  deal 
that  was  new. 

The  fourth  period  came  with  learning  to  walk  (fourteenth 
month) .  During  it,  he  gained  much  in  the  art  of  using  his  body 
to  advantage,  and  acquired  a  new  understanding  of  certain  fea- 
tures of  his  surroundings  which  previously  he  could  take  in  by 
sight  only.  Some  words  were  added  to  his  vocabulary. 

An  interval  of  six  weeks  separated  the  fourth  and  fifth  sea- 
sons (sixteenth  month) .  During  the  fifth  period,  which  lasted  for 
two  weeks,  the  rate  of  development  was  a  rapid  one.  The  sixth 
and  last  season  was  observed  in  the  twenty-first  month,  when 
words,  hitherto'  added  to  the  vocabulary  so  slowly,  came  into 
use  at  the  rate  of  one  to  three  daily. 

It  was  difficult  to  estimate  the  length  of  one  of  these  seasons, 
which  seemed  to  wax  suddenly,  and  to  wane  gradually.  The 
gains  made  while  they  lasted,  remained  with  the  child  to  be  in- 
corporated into  his  daily  life ;  no  premonitory  signs  announced 
their  approach,  though  he  was  slowly  preparing  for  each  dur- 
ing the  interval  which  preceded  it.  In  looking  for  an  explana- 
tion of  the  periods  these  facts  would  seem  to  point  away  from 
a  field  of  causation  wholly  external  to  the  child.  Perhaps  like 
a  clay  modeller  who  works  by  turns  upon  each  portion  of  the 
figure  he  is  moulding,  and  finds  his  model  finished  as  if  by 
magic  beneath  his  touch,  the  child,  experimenting  now  here, 
now  there,  gaining  control  first  in  one  direction  then  in  another, 
one  day  surprises  his  elders  by  a  display  of  knowledge  and 
ability  of  which  they  had  not  supposed  him  possessed.  The  ac- 
quisition of  new  power  then  leads  to  an  increase  of  knowledge 
and  the  growth  of  further  ability  along  related  lines.  However 
this  may  be,  the  rate  of  progress  apparently  became  more  uni- 
form after  the  sixth  period,  because  the  striking  features  of  its 
course  had  been  developed. 


PART  L— MOVEMENTS. 


PRELIMINARY. 

All  motor  manifestations  of  the  child,  from  the  spontaneous 
physiological  activities  of  nerve  centers  and  muscles  to  the  com- 
plex actions  of  later  infancy,  may  be  classified  as  movements. 
Hence,  this  has  been  selected  as  the  most  suitable  term  under 
which  to  subordinate  the  several  divisions  contained  in  Part  I. 
of  the  present  work.  The  materials  for  the  study  of  the  de- 
velopment of  movements  I  have  classified  under  eight  heads,  as 
follows : 

1.  Spontaneous 

2.  Instinctive 

3.  Habitual 

4.  Voluntary       I   __ 

A  r       >  Movements. 

5.  Automatic      ( 

6.  Inhibitory 

7.  Expressive 

8.  Mechanical 

The  succession  in  which  this  enumeration  of  the  classes  of 
movements  is  arranged  does  not  indicate,  except  in  the  roughest 
way,  the  order  of  their  development. 

According  to  the  classification  made  by  Preyer,  which  has 
been  quoted  and  used  by  other  authors,1  the  movements  of  a 
child  have  been  arranged  in  four  groups,2  designated — 

1 .  Impulsive 

2.  Instinctive       _.. 

_    _  Movements. 

3.  Reflex 

4.  Voluntary 

At  birth,  movements  of  the  first  class  (spontaneous  or  im- 
pulsive) were  the  most  conspicuous.  Immediately  after  birth,  the 

1  For  example  :   The  Psychology  of  Childhood,  Tracy,  2nd  edition,  p.  92. 

2  The   Senses  and  the  Will  (Preyer),  pp.  195-201.     Also  The  Infant  Mind 
(Preyer),  pp.  51-55. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  9 

child  continued  to  lie  in  a  position  which  closely  resembled  that  of 
the  foetus.  The  early  movements  were  generally  conditioned  in 
range  and  direction,  by  the  maintenance  of  this  position.  With- 
in an  hour  after  birth  the  arms  were  waved  towards  the  head 
and  face ;  the  legs  were  repeatedly  straightened  and  flexed,  the 
eye  balls  rolled  continually  beneath  the  closed  lids,  the  muscles 
of  the  face  were  active.  With  the  development  of  action, 
movements  such  as  these  gradually  disappeared.  The  change 
was  very  noticeable  in  the  case  of  the  eye  ball.  With  in- 
creased frequency  and  perfection  in  the  visual  coordinations  of 
the  eye  muscles,  the  eyeballs  ceased  altogether  to  roll  about 
(during  the  hours  of  wakefulness.)  Preyer,  observing  (a)  the 
number  and  variety  of  the  early  movements,  (b)  the  occurrence 
of  adaptive  movements  while  the  spontaneous  movements  were 
conspicuous,  and  (c)  the  gradual  disappearance  of  the  early 
movements  as  adaptations  became  habitual,  was  led  to  regard 
adaptive  motor  coordinations  as  combinations  of  the  purposeless 
movements,  fortunate  in  their  results,  and  therefore  selected  and 
preserved.  He  then  ascribed  to  them  the  function  of  progenitors 
to  the  succeeding  generations  of  movements,  whether  these  be 
habitual  bodily  activities  (walking  etc.),  or  voluntary  actions. 
To  movements  standing  in  this  ancestral  relation  the  name  im- 
pulsive might  fitly  be  applied.  But  a  consideration  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  movement,  and  in  particular  the  observation  of  just 
what  movements  were  selected  for  further  development,  have 
led  me  to  the  belief  that  the  significance  of  these  movements  is 
not  what  Preyer  supposed  it  to  be,  and  that  they  are  in  conse- 
quence more  correctly  named  spontaneous1  movements.  In  this 
series  of  independent,  but  related  studies,  spontaneous  move- 
ments are  not  treated  in  a  separate  division.  They  are  often 
referred  to  and  severally  described  from  time  to  time  during 
the  course  of  the  discussions. 

The  definition  of  instinct  here  adopted  as  a  basis  for  the 
discrimination  of  certain  classes  of  movements  is  this :  An 
instinct  is  the  ability  to  perform  without  previous  individual 
experience,  a  given  purposive  act  by  which  changes  in  con- 

1  As  such  they  are  designated  by  Bain,  The  Emotions  and  the  Will;  The  WH1, 
Chap.  I.,  and  by  Prof.  Baldwin,  Mental  Development,  p.  81. 


10  KATHLEEN   CARTER  MOORE. 

scious  states  are  induced.  This  definition  does  not  permit  of 
the  inclusion  in  the  class  of  instincts  of  the  habitual  actions 
called  race  instincts.  One  and  all  of  the  race  instincts  (sit- 
ting, walking,  running,  etc.),  were  acquired  slowly,  and 
their  attainment  was  the  result  of  a  great  number  of  previous 
trials,  failures  and  partial  successes.  Herein  they  differed 
widely  from  actions  which  were  at  once  performed  without  ex- 
perience, such  as  sucking  and  clasping.  In  order  to  show  by 
comparison  that  the  manner  of  acquiring  a  habit  common  to 
the  human  race  is  in  no  wise  different  from  the  way  in  which  a 
personal  habit  becomes  fixed,  I  shall  describe  fully  the  rise  of 
one  habit  of  each  class — grasping,  and  sucking  the  thumb. 
The  studies  of  these  have  moreover  a  three-fold  purpose : 

I.  To  give  the  history  of  the  rise  of  the  habit. 

II.  To  ascertain  the  primitive,  or  simplest  types  of  move- 
ment upon  which  were  built  up  subsequent  coordinations,  com- 
plications, and  modifications  of  movements. 

III.  To  discover  the  principles  upon  which  rested  the  devel- 
opment of  the  series  from  the  types. 

The  movements  described  as  habitual,  voluntary,  auto- 
matic and  inhibitory  are  closely  related  forms  of  activity.  In 
the  chapters  devoted  to  the  discussion  of  these  movements  it  will 
be  more  clearly  shown  what,  and  how  close,  the  relationship  is. 

All  my  notes  on  movements  might  be  called  into  requisition 
for  a  study  of  the  development  of  automatism  in  the  child. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  child  at  birth  was  a  being  less  en- 
dowed than  at  two  years  of  age  with  the  ability  to  perform  au- 
tomatic acts,  and  possessed  with  fewer  forms  of  the  same.  With- 
out, however,  pretending  to  cover  the  general  question,  I  shall 
give  the  history  of  some  automatic  actions. 

I  could  not  in  this  study  in  individual  psychology,  discuss 
adequately  the  standpoint  of  modern  psychologists  on  the  ques- 
tion of  emotional  expression  and  development.  The  evidence 
obtained  from  a  single  individual  may  be  sufficient  to  make  one 
distrust  general  conclusions,  and  yet  in  itself  lack  the  volume 
and  detail  upon  which  to  base  new  ones.  In  the  chapters  on 
movements  of  expression  and  mechanical  reflexes  I  have  re- 
corded facts  which  related  to  the  development  of  the  child,  but 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  II 

the  material,  though  suggestive,  was  somewhat  too  scanty  to  be 
used  as  the  foundation  of  special  studies  within  the  respective 
fields. 

Before  bringing  these  preliminary  remarks  to  a  close  it  may 
be  well  to  record  examples  of  the  survival  and  transformation 
of  some  spontaneous  movements  which  were  preserved  in  con- 
nection with  forms  of  habitual  actions.  These,  because  of  their 
relation  to  the  subject  of  reaction  time,  belong  to  movements  as  a 
whole  rather  than  to  any  one  class.  The  spontaneous  movements 
were  quicker  and  often  more  jerky  than  voluntary  movements. 
Thus  many  movements  made  within  the  first  two  months  had  an 
appearance  of  rapidity  which  was  in  curious  contrast  to  the  slow 
and  trembling  motions  with  which  he  made  his  first  attempts  at 
reaching  and  grasping.  If  the  reaction  time  of  the  child  were 
judged  by  sensori-motor  standards  (for  example  the  hurt  and 
the  cry,  the  noise  and  the  movement) ,  the  time  of  reaction 
always  seemed  long.  Some  rapid  movements  were  preserved 
in  grasping,  however,  as  reference  to  the  examples  under  that 
heading  will  serve  to  show.  First,  he  grasped  what  came  within 
the  range  of  his  sweeping  arm.  Then,  he  sometimes  gained 
a  sighted  object  by  a  rapid  arm  movement,  a  reproduction  of 
the  sweeping  one,  which  was  more  likely  to  succeed  than 
was  reaching  by  his  newly  acquired  method.  When  a  strong 
desire  to  take  everything  in  the  hands  had  grown  up,  the  child 
developed  such  quickness  at  seizing,  with  the  same  arm  move- 
ment, what  he  passed  or  was  near,  that  he  often  took  an  article 
from  beneath  one's  eyes  ere  one  realized  that  he  had  stirred. 
When  he  could  sit  upon  the  floor  and  had  learned  not  to  plunge 
forward  so  that  he  fell,  rapidity  of  action  was  extended  from 
arm  to  body  movements,  enabling  him  by  a  sudden  lurch  and 
recovery  to  regain  what  had  rolled  away,  or  to  catch  what  ap- 
proached him.  At  the  close  of  the  second  year  the  rate  of 
movement  was  generally  more  uniform ;  it  was  not  varied  by 
phenomenal  slowness  at  the  one  extreme,  nor  by  startling 
quickness  at  the  other. 


12  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

SECTION  I.— HABITS. 
A  PERSONAL  HABIT  :  RECORD. 

First  Day. — Within  an  hour  after  birth  the  child  was  seen 
to  be  sucking  his  thumb. 

Fourth  Day. — Sucking  the  thumb  again  occurred.  Between 
the  first  and  fourth  days  he  often  sucked  his  fists.  During 
the  first  month  he  was  not  prevented  from  doing  this,  but  his 
thumb  was  always  taken  out  of  his  mouth. 

Twenty-second  Day. — He  had  not  formed  the  habit  of  suck- 
ing his  thumb,  but,  in  the  turning  and  twisting  of  the  fists,  the 
thumb  sometimes  found  its  way  into  the  mouth. 

Thirty-fifth  Day. — In  this  manner  he  twice  got  the  thumb 
in  his  mouth. 

Forty-ninth  Day. — By  this  day  he  often  got  the  thumb  into 
his  mouth.  If  it  was  taken  away  from  him,  he  sometimes,  after 
an  interval  not  exceeding  twenty  minutes,  got  it  again.  After 
a  long  interval  he  did  not  take  his  thumb,  but  sucked  his  fists. 
These  would  seem  to  have  suggested  the  thumb,  which  by 
turning  his  hands,  he  soon  obtained. 

Tenth  Week. — Holding  the  four  fingers  closed,  the  thumb 
extended,  the  child  raised  the  thumb  towards  his  face,  no  longer 
beginning  with  his  fists.  He  was  quite  as  likely  to  strike  his 
forehead,  eyes  or  cheek  with  his  thumb  as  to  place  it  in  his 
mouth.  Spontaneous  arm  movements  interfered  to  prevent  his 
holding  the  thumb  in  his  mouth,  and  caused  the  hand  to  be 
jerked  away.  If  this  happened  many  times  the  child  cried 
from  vexation.  In  the  excitement  of  crying  the  arm  move- 
ments increased,  and  the  less  certain  became  his  hold  on  the 
thumb.  In  spite  of  these  obstacles  the  child  usually  persevered 
till  he  succeeded  in  getting  the  thumb  firmly  in  his  mouth. 

In  the  tenth  week  he  was  vaccinated,  and  the  doctor  advised 
that  the  child,  who  was  slightly  feverish,  be  not  worried  by  at- 
tempts to  prevent  his  sucking  the  thumb.  Doubtless  thirst  and 
feelings  of  general  discomfort  caused  the  child  to  suck  more 
than  usual.  At  any  rate  the  habit  became  fixed  in  the  two 
weeks  during  which  the  vaccination  took  its  course. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  13 

Eleventh  Week. — He  no  longer  experienced  difficulty  in  hold- 
ing the  thumb  in  the  mouth.  If  his  mother's  breast  was  offered 
to  the  child  while  he  was  sucking  his  thumb,  he  made  no  at- 
tempt to  take  it,  but  sucked  on  contentedly,  even  though  he  lay 
quite  close  to  the  breast  and  was  looking  at  it. 

Sixteenth  Week. — When  he  saw  the  breast  he  quickly  dropped 
the  thumb  to  seize  it. 

Eighteenth  Week. — When  both  hands  were  free  he  sucked 
either  thumb,  but  chiefly  the  left.  If  the  left  thumb  was  con- 
fined in  a  stall,  he  sucked  neither  the  right  nor  left. 

Twentieth  Week. — The  child  began  to  suck  the  right  thumb 
when  the  left  was  encased ;  but  instead  of  holding  his  hand  in 
a  closed  fist,  he  held  it  open,  the  palm  turned  downward. 

Twenty-fourth  Week. — When  the  stall  was  transferred  from 
the  left  thumb  to  the  right,  he  made  no  attempt  to  suck  the  left, 
but  fretted  for  the  right.  One  day,  he  put  the  thumb  in  his 
mouth,  then  took  it  out  and  looked  at  the  stall.  The  next  day 
he  looked  at  his  thumb,  which  wore  no  stall,  then  put  it  into  his 
mouth.  After  the  twenty-fourth  week  he  learned  to  suck  the 
free  thumb  of  either  hand.  A  stall  was  then  put  on  each  thumb. 

Thirty-eighth  Week. — He  began  to  suck  the  forefinger  of 
either  hand  when  his  thumbs  were  tied  up,  holding  the  palm 
of  the  hand  upwards. 

At  the  close  of  the  second  year,  the  child  still  sucked  his 
thumb. 

INTERPRETATION. 

The  habit  of  sucking  the  thumb  is  of  wide  occurrence 
among  children,  and  a  great  diversity  of  opinion  exists  as  to  the 
possible  effects  of  indulgence  in  it.  All  children  who  suck  do 
not  suck  the  thumb.  Some  suck  a  finger  (usually  the  index  or 
second)  which  may  be  held  in  various  positions  when  in  the 
the  mouth ;  others  suck  a  knuckle,  and  yet  others  a  part  of  the 
flesh  of  the  hand  or  arm.  Nor  does  the  habit  of  sucking  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  learn  from  inquiry,  appear  to  run  in  fami- 
lies, though  tradition  regarding  it  does,  causing  some  mothers  to 
teach  it  to  their  children,  and  others  to  try  by  every  means  to 
prevent  its  acquirement.  It  is  generally  conceded  that  it 


H  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

6  makes  a  good  baby '  of  the  little  one  to  have  this  comforter 
amidst  the  trials  of  its  young  life.  The  possibility  that  the 
substitute  may  afford  solace  rests  upon  two  significant  facts : 
(a)  the  concentration  of  the  early  impressions  around  the  satis- 
faction of  hunger,  and  (3)  the  failure  of  the  child  to  discrimi- 
nate among  his  feelings. 

It  is  probable  that  the  thumb  first  found  its  way  into  the  mouth 
by  accident.  The  position  of  the  hands  and  arms  and  their 
constant  movement  within  a  circumscribed  limit,  naturally 
brought  them  into  juxtaposition  with  the  mouth.  Of  all  the 
fingers,  the  thumb  because  of  its  position  on  the  hand  was 
likely  to  be  the  one  to  get  into  the  mouth,  and  was  moreover 
the  only  one  with  an  exposed  free  end.1  The  thumb,  having 
come  in  contact  with  the  lips,  was,  owing  to  the  strong  tendency 
to  suck,  taken  into  the  mouth  and  at  once  made  use  of.  Owing 
to  the  same  strong  tendency,  the  backs  of  the  fists  were  sucked. 
But  the  size  and  shape  of  the  thumb  fitted  it  preeminently  for 
the  purpose.  When  a  difference  in  its  favor  had  been  ex- 
perienced a  preference  for  it  led  to  a  repetition  of  those  move- 
ments whereby  it  had  been  obtained.  On  the  forty-ninth  day  we 
find  the  child  getting  hold  of  his  thumb  by  a  round-about  method, 
the  reproduction  of  early  movements,  whereas  by  the  tenth 
week  a  direct  method  had  been  developed.  By  the  forty-ninth 
day  an  associative  link  was  established  which  connected,  with 
the  sucking  complex,  certain  hand  movements  and  feelings  of 
satisfaction  in  favor  of  the  thumb.  By  the  tenth  week  thumb 
sensations  had  become  differentiated  from  the  sum  of  the 
hand  sensations,  thumb-perception  and  thumb-desire  had  been 
formed  and  thumb-habit  formulated  but  not  perfected.2  It  is 
noteworthy  that  an  indisposition  was  instrumental  in  clinching 
the  habit. 

At  first  the  thumb  was  used  as  a  substitute  for  the  mother's 
breast,  evidence  that  he  had  as  yet  no  idea  of  his  own  hands  by 
which  to  distinguish  them  fully.  After  the  tenth  week  sucking 
the  hands  no  longer  served  as  an  expression  of  physical  uneasi- 

1  Not  more  than  three  times  was  the  child's  thumb  observed  to  be  enclosed 
in  the  fist. 

2  Compare  with  stage  of  progress  of  grasping  (  tenth  week.  ) 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  15 

ness ;  but  sucking  the  thumb  became  the  means  of  obtaining 
comfort.  The  discussion  of  this  personal  habit  has  been  carried 
to  the  point  of  its  formation.  Let  us,  before  going  further, 
pause  to  note  the  native  elements  which  lay  at  its  foundation. 

1.  Instinct  of  sucking. 

2.  Postal  position  of  the  hands. 

3.  Spontaneous  movements  of  the  hands  and  arms. 

4.  Peculiar  fitness  of  the  thumb. 

These  pertain  especially  to  the  thumb  habit ;  to  them  must 
be  added  Nos.  2,  3  and  4  of  the  capabilities  enumerated  below 
under  the  interpretation  of  the  facts  relating  to  grasping.  Such 
a  form  of  activity  as  grasping  might  be  declared  to  have  devel- 
oped through  reflex  action  without  intellectual  accompaniment. 
The  evidence  here  brought  forward,  bearing  on  the  formation 
of  the  thumb  sucking  habit,  points  directly  to  a  hedonic  ele- 
ment at  the  foundation  of  its  growth.  While  we  may  not  desig- 
nate this  element  as  pleasure  or  pain,  we  may  describe  it  as  the 
recognition  of  feelings  of  comfort  and  discomfort. 

RECORD  OF  HAND  AND  ARM  MOVEMENTS. 

First  Day. — During  the  first  hour  the  arms  were  waved 
about  towards  the  head  and  face.  Later  the  hands,  usually 
held  beneath  the  chin,  were  closed  in  a  fist.  They  clasped  a  fin- 
ger when  it  was  introduced  into  the  palm ;  they  did  not  clasp 
what  merely  touched  the  hand. 

Sixth  Day. — The  fingers,  no  longer  continually  flexed,  were 
sometimes  extended.  When  nursing,  the  open  hands  lay  upon 
the  mother's  breast. 

Seventh  Day. — The  hands  were  often  open  but  held  near 
the  face. 

Twenty-ninth  Day. — A  finger  was  placed  in  a  hand  which 
the  child  had  been  sucking.  He  clasped  the  finger  and  es- 
sayed twice  to  draw  it  towards  his  mouth. 

Thirty-sixth  Day. — The  attitude  of  the  fingers  was  now  pe- 
culiar, the  forefinger  crooked,  the  other  three  extended,  or  flexed 
slightly  at  the  distal  phalanges.  The  elbows  were  still  flexed. 
About  this  date  he  began  to  grasp  the  clothing  of  the  person 
in  whose  arms  he  was  held,  and  to  maintain  his  hold  upon  it. 


1 6  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

Thirty-eighth  Day. — Grasping  and  holding  became  frequent. 
He  repeatedly  grasped  and  held  a  fold  of  the  mother's  gown — 
once  maintaining  his  hold  for  fifteen  minutes.  When  a  finger 
was  placed  in  the  hand  of  an  arm  which  was  waving  about, 
he  took  the  finger  firmly  and  carried  it  towards  his  face.  The 
child  no  longer  allowed  his  hands  to  be  covered,  but  removed 
them  from  beneath  the  blanket  even  when  asleep. 

Fifty-fifth  Day. — He  grasped  whatever  came  within  the 
sweep  of  his  active  arms. 

Tenth  Week. — He  fingered  things  a  great  deal  as  if  feeling 
of  them.  Before  the  tenth  week  the  child  had  worn  only  flan- 
nel dresses,  but  during  this  week  a  change  was  made  to  muslin 
dresses.  He  at  once  began  to  handle  these,  gathering  the  stuff 
up  into  bunches  which  he  could  see.  When  the  flannel  dresses 
were  put  on  again  he  did  not  handle  them. 

Twelfth  Week. — Sometimes  grasped  with  the  thumb  oppos- 
ing the  fingers.  Once  grasped  with  the  thumb  and  index  finger. 
In  his  first  attempt  at  reaching  he  fixed  his  gaze  upon  an 
object,  pursed  his  lips  in  attention,  and  moved  his  hand  grop- 
ingly towards  it. 

Thirteenth  Week. — Was  seen  to  watch  his  hand,  as  he 
stretched  out  his  arm  and  grasped  his  mother's  dress. 

Fifteenth  Week. — He  reached  with  an  uncertain,  shaky  hand 
for  a  pair  of  scissors  which  he  obtained  twice. 

Sixteenth  Week — In  the  beginning  of  the  week  two  balls  of 
the  first  gift  were  suspended  by  strings  above  the  child's  bed 
and  within  reach  of  his  arms.  At  first  he  gave  no  heed  to 
them,  continuing  to  gather  up  his  dress  in  bunches.  Later  in 
the  week  he  did  notice  them,  reached  for  them  with  open  hands, 
and  seemed  annoyed  that  he  could  not  hold  them. 

Seventeenth  Week. — He  began  to  play  with  his  own  fingers. 
Reaching  became  more  frequent.  Sometimes  he  struck  the  ob- 
ject with  the  back  of  the  hand,  thereupon  he  turned  the  hand 
over  so  that  the  palmar  surface  touched  it.  He  did  not  try  to 
get  articles  whose  distance  from  him  was  greater  than  the 
length  of  his  arm,  or  if  he  did,  he  attempted  to  move  his  body 
toward  them. 

Eighteenth  Week. — Hand  and  arm  movements  in  grasping 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  17 

and  reaching  still  very  imperfect.  The  hand  was  sometimes 
outstretched  with  a  trembling  uncertain  movement,  when  it 
often  fell  short  of  its  goal ;  sometimes  it  caught  the  object  by  a 
rapid  sweep  of  the  arm  and  firm  grasp.  He  frequently  handled 
the  balls  without  looking  at  them  or  his  hands. 

Twenty-first  Week — His  feet  became  a  favored  plaything. 
Twenty-fifth  Week. — He  objected  to  having  them  covered 
by  stockings  or  bed  clothing. 

Twenty-sixth  Week. — They  invariably  supplemented  the 
hands  in  feeling  of  objects ;  the  hands  grasped  the  object  first, 
the  feet  then  went  up  to  feel  of  it.  One  hand,  or  one  foot  rarely 
acted  alone,  though  the  movements  were  not  symmetrical.  One 
sometimes  initiated  the  movement,  but  the  other,  unless  in  the 
mouth,  soon  followed. 

Twenty -seventh  Week. — He  attempted  to  hold  with  the  feet. 
He  touched  an  object  with  an  open  palm  as  one  feels  of  a  flat 
surface.  But  in  taking  hold  of  the  balls  he  passed  his  fingers 
under  them. 

Thirtieth  Week. — He  drummed  on  the  table  of  his  chair, 
holding  a  spoon  or  *  gum  ring'  in  his  hand. 

Thirty-first  Week. — He  amused  himself  by  grasping  between 
his  first  and  second  toes  the  leg  supporting  the  table  of  his  chair, 
which  he  alternately  lifted  and  let  fall  so  that  it  rapped  upon 
the  floor. 

Thirty-second  Week. — He  tried  for  the  first  time  to  grasp  with 
his  whole  hand  a  very  small  object — a  fly.  He  reached  for  the 
fold  of  the  table  cloth  which  droops  from  the  corner  of  the  table, 
his  hand  conforming  in  its  attitude  to  the  form  of  the  fold. 

Thirty-third  Week. — Before  the  thirty-third  week  the  child 
had  never  been  seen  to  use  the  two  hands  for  different  purposes 
at  the  same  time,  with  the  exception  of  the  occasions  upon  which 
he  sucked  his  thumb,  when  the  other  hand  usually  fingered 
something.  One  day  in  the  thirty-third  week  he  was  holding  a 
napkin  ring  up  to  his  mouth,  when  a  bearded  face  was  thrust  in 
front  of  his.  He  gazed  upon  this  for  a  few  moments,  then,  care- 
fully taking  the  ring  in  one  hand  and  slipping  the  other  out,  he 
reached  for  the  beard,  continuing  to  bite  the  ring. 

In  this  week  he  ceased  to  use  his  feet  for  playthings,  but 


1 8  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

continued  to  use  them  in  reaching  and  feeling.  When  given 
an  orange  he  handled  it  much  as  he  did  the  balls,  with  evident 
appreciation  of  its  form.1 

Thirty-fourth  Week. — The  separate  use  of  the  hands  had 
become  a  habit,  but  he  could  be  seen  to  show  no  preference  for 
one  hand  over  the  other.  He  regarded  his  hands  with  a  fresh 
interest,  holding  one  before  his  eyes,  opening  and  closing  the 
fingers.  The  forefinger  was  separated  from  the  other  three 
and  used  independently ;  it  was  often  held  open  when  the  rest 
were  closed,  as  though  in  the  attitude  of  pointing.  In  this 
week  he  used  separately  the  index  and  thumb,  and  three  other 
fingers ;  grasping  the  lips  of  a  person  with  his  whole  hand,  he 
maintained  his  hold  with  three  fingers,  while  with  thumb  and 
index  he  reached  after  the  nose,  which  he  held  also. 

Thirty-sixth  Week. — He  failed  to  reach  a  dish,  though  he 
leaned  forward  as  far  as  he  could  and  stretched  his  arm  to  its 
full  length.  He  then  took  up  a  spoon  and  succeeded  by  its  help 
in  touching  the  dish. 

Thirty-eighth  Week. — He  twice  imitated  actions  of  his 
mother.  Holding  two  spoons  by  their  handles  she  clapped  the 
bowls  together  till  they  rang.  The  child  reached  for  the  spoons 
and  awkwardly  copied  the  action.  His  mother  then  did  it  a  sec- 
ond time,  upon  which  he  reached  for  one  spoon  which  he  took  in 
his  left  hand.  In  order  to  get  the  second  he  passed  the  first  on 
to  the  right  hand,  and  took  the  second  in  the  left.  He  now  held 
them  in  such  a  way  that  the  bowl  of  the  second  spoon  projected 
beyond  that  of  the  first;  he  then  raised  the  first  spoon  till 
the  two  were  even,  after  which  he  clapped  them  together. 

Thirty-ninth  Week. — He  now  felt  of  objects  with  his  fore- 
finger, holding  the  other  fingers  flexed. 

Forty-first  Week. — Before  taking  hold  of  an  object  he  looked 
it  over  carefully,  then  grasped  the  smaller  part,  which  he  could 

1  The  study  of  the  accommodation  of  hand  movements  and  attitudes  to  the 
various  objects  handled  is  capable  of  far  wider  investigation  than  I  have  given 
it.  Through  it  may  be  gained  much  insight  into  the  growth  of  the  perception 
of  form.  In  my  work  I  trusted  to  a  series  of  instantaneous  photographs,  merely 
noting  movements  in  the  journal  and  not  describing  them  fully.  It  is  greatly 
to  be  regretted  that  the  photographs,  owing  to  a  fault  in  the  films,  proved 
worthless.  Hence  this  important  subject  cannot  here  receive  the  consideration 
which  is  its  due. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  19 

easily  hold  in  his  hand  (tail  of  a  toy  cat,  handle  of  a  dipper, 

etc.). 

Forty-fourth  Week. — In  trying  to  pick  up  a  small  thing, 
such  as  a  piece  of  thread  or  a  bread  crumb,  he  first  pointed  at 
and  touched  it  with  his  forefinger,  then  withdrawing  the  flexed 
hand  a  short  distance,  he  made  a  downward  dart  with  the  now 
open  hand,  which  he  closed  over  the  object.  Usually  the  first 
attempt  was  not  crowned  with  success ;  but  be  repeated  the 
action  till  its  end  was  attained — often  as  many  as  six  times. 
He  occasionally  picked  up  a  small  object  with  his  thumb  and 
forefinger ;  by  the  fifty-second  week  this  method  had  entirely 
superseded  the  other. 

Forty-seventh  Week. — He  reached  after  the  coffee-pot  with  a 
spoon,  which  he  hooked  in  the  handle,  and  drew  the  pot  towards 
him. 

Fifty-sixth  Week. — The  forefinger  used  less  markedly.  The 
hand  in  general  employed  with  more  skill. 

Seventy-second  Week. — At  this  time  he  fed  himself  with  the 
left  hand. 

Eighty-eighth  Week. — The  child  was  observed  sitting  on  the 
floor,  holding  a  magazine  between  his  legs,  and  letting  the 
pages  slip  from  between  his  thumb  and  forefinger  as  he  viewed 
the  pictures.  The  forefinger  was  used  in  pointing  out  objects 
and  persons. 

Ninety-first  Week. — He  still  looked  at  his  outstretched  hand. 
Upon  one  occasion,  after  pointing  to  an  object,  he  regarded  his 
hand  reflectively  and  said,  "  see  an  ! "  (see  hand). 

Ninety-third  and  Ninety-fourth  Weeks. — Observations  and 
experiments  failed  to  reveal  a  development  of  right-handedness. 
Experiments  showed  a  slight  but  inconclusive  preponderance  of 
actions  of  a  certain  class  in  favor  of  the  right  hand. 

Ninety-fifth  Week. — He  learned  to  throw  a  ball  overhand,  and 
to  make  marks  with  a  pencil  on  paper.  He  experienced  con- 
siderable difficulty  in  holding  the  first  and  second  fingers  to- 
gether and  separated  from  the  rest. 

One  Hundred  and  Fifth  Week. — In  performing  difficult 
actions  with  the  right  hand  and  arm,  the  child  gave  evidence  of 
being  right-handed. 


20  KATHLEEN   CARTER   MOORE. 

INTERPRETATION. 

Immediately  after  birth  the  baby's  hands  were  not  organs  of 
prehension  at  all.  They  went  forth  to  meet  nothing  and  did  not 
even  close  over  what  came  into  contact  with  them,  unless  it  was 
actually  thrust  into  the  palm.  In  the  twelfth  week  his  hands 
became  true  organs  of  prehension ;  for  they  were  then  able  to 
get  what  was  perceived  through  the  sense  of  sight.  The  steps 
by  which  the  child  gained  the  power  to  use  his  hands  may 
be  described  as  follows  :  As  the  first  one,  there  was  the  inborn 
ability  to  clasp,  or  close  the  hand — the  instinct  of  clasping. 
Sensations  of  touch  and  movement  ensued  upon  the  exercise 
of  this  inborn  ability.  By  the  alteration  of  the  attitudes  of  the 
hand  from  pre-natal  to  post-natal  ones,  a  larger  surface  was  ex- 
posed, increasing  the  area  for  stimulation.  Sensations  of  con- 
tact from  all  parts  of  the  hand  ensued.  Spontaneous  move- 
ments of  the  arms  brought  the  hands  into  various  situations  and 
contacts.  The  change  from  pre-  to  post-natal  arm  attitudes 
gave  a  different  quality  to  arm  movements.  A  sweeping  motion 
of  the  fully  extended  arm  then  became  more  common.  Hold- 
ing, or  the  continuation  of  the  action  in  the  presence  of  the 
stimulus,  as  opposed  to  mere  clasping,  was  next  developed. 

He  experienced  new  muscular  sensations  induced  by  resis- 
tance encountered  when  he  tried  to  draw  towards  his  mouth  the 
object  which  he  had  clasped.  Sensations  of  touch  from  all  parts 
of  the  hand  were  bound  by  association  to  the  act  of  clasping 
in  such  a  way  as  to  insure  the  clasping  of  anything  touching 
any  part  of  the  hand.  After  this  the  hands  clasped  whatever 
they  were  brought  into  contact  with  by  the  activity  of  the  arms, 
in  other  words,  not  only  what  came  to  them,  but  also  that  which 
they  went  out  to  meet.  In  the  tenth  week  he  reacted  distinctly 
to  differences  in  sensations  of  touch  received  through  the  hands. 

In  opening  and  closing  his  hands  on  the  material  which 
caused  the  change  of  sensation,  and  in  flexing  his  elbows,  he 
carried  bunches  of  the  material  into  his  field  of  vision.  Sensa- 
tions of  sight  were  then  experienced  in  company  with  those  of 
muscle  and  skin.  At  this  time  the  child  had  already  developed 
by  other  experiences  some  perceptions  of  things  seen  and  some 
appreciation  of  direction  and  distance.1 

1  Consult  Part  III.,  Sec.  2,  of  this  work. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  21 

Hereafter  the  child  frequently  saw  his  hands  in  conjunction 
with  objects  clasped,  a  constant  element  in  every  vision.  In 
his  first  attempts  at  reaching,  the  child  fixed  his  gaze  on  the  ob- 
ject, and  not  on  the  hand,  guiding  the  hand  and  arm  entirely 
by  standards  of  movement  which  were  established  before  he 
could  sit  up,  or  had  seen  his  body  and  limbs.  In  this  connec- 
tion it  is  interesting  to  note  that  as  late  as  the  sixth  month  he 
took  pleasure  in  playing  with  objects  that  he  did  not  see. 

In  the  thirteenth  week  he  began  to  watch  his  moving  hand. 
After  this  he  was  able  to  reach  after  and  grasp,  though  as  yet 
very  awkwardly,  something  held  within  a  suitable  distance. 

If  the  foregoing  interpretation  of  the  process  of  the  growth 
of  reaching  and  grasping  be  the  correct  one,  we  may  assume 
the  following  capabilities  and  conditions  to  have  existed  in  the 
child  as  a  basis  which  made  the  growth  possible  (but  did  not 
cause  it) ,  namely  : 

1.  Instinct  of  clasping. 

2.  Capability  of  receiving  sensations  of  touch  and  move- 
ment. 

3.  The  tendency  of  one  or  more  terms  of  a  series  composed 
of  sensations  which  have  been  felt  together,  or  in  conjunction 
with  the  mental  representative  of  a  movement,  to  call  up  the 
other  term  or  terms. 

4.  Physiological  law  of  habit. 

5.  Range    and   variety  of  movements   conditioned  by  the 
modification  of  the  foetal  attitudes  which  were  maintained  by 
the  child. 

If  we  examine  the  later  history  of  hand  movements  and  a 
further  development  of  the  thumb-sucking  habit,  they  are  found 
to  have,  respectively  and  in  common,  some  significant  points. 

Between  the  thirteenth  and  sixteenth  weeks  occurred  the 
perception  of  the  hand  as  distinct  from  other  objects.  By  the 
sixteenth  week  his  thumb  no  longer  afforded  satisfaction  as  a 
substitute  for  his  mother's  breast.  In  the  seventeenth  week  he 
took  an  interest  in  the  hands  for  themselves,  using  them  as 
playthings.  At  this  time  he  usually  reached  with  both  arms, 
though  he  sometimes,  as  when  sucking,  used  one  hand  alone. 
Nevertheless,  he  was  not  aware  of  the  number  and  separateness 


22  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

of  the  hands,  as  was  shown  by  his  actions  when  one  thumb  was 
tied  up  in  a  stall. 

In  the  twenty-sixth  week  matters  were  further  complicated 
by  the  addition  of  the  feet  as  organs  of  touch.  I  was  at  first  in- 
clined to  regard  this  peculiar  feature  of  the  use  of  the  feet  as  a  ru- 
dimentary instinct,  inherited  from  the  remote  past,  and  suppressed 
in  most  children  by  the  custom  of  keeping  the  feet  encased. 
But  later  a  review  of  the  rise,  continuance  and  decline  of  the 
practice  led  me  to  discard  the  earlier  opinion.  As  soon  as  the 
weather  permitted,  the  child  ceased  to  wear  stockings,  and, 
dressed  in  light  warm  clothing,  he  was  allowed  every  freedom 
of  movement.  His  whole  body  was  now  in  constant  motion,  so 
that  in  a  short  time  he  inevitably  discovered  his  feet  (2ist  week) . 
The  hand  had  then  acquired  no  extraordinary  skill,  but  was 
occupied  in  feeling  objects  of  various  kinds,  so  the  feet  were 
able  to  do  their  share,  also  coming  in  contact  with  numbers  of 
things.  It  is  true  grasping  still  belonged  to  the  hand  ;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  how  extremely  imperfect  a  form  of  grasping  it 
was.  To  have  and  to  hold  was  not  its  purpose,  nor  had  the 
child  perceptions  of  objects  upon  which  to  base  a  desire  for 
them.  However,  as  the  hands  became  more  skillful  the  office 
of  feeling  was  delegated  to  the  feet,  which  invariably  felt  of 
that  which  the  hands  held.  With  the  development  of  hand 
movements,  and  the  acquirement  of  the  habit  of  sitting  erect, 
such  use  of  the  feet  gradually  ceased,  till  it  had  largely  dis- 
appeared. 

Development  of  hand  movements  after  the  twenty-fourth 
week  may  be  summarized  as  follows : 

The  separation  of  the  sensations  of  each  thumb,  and  the 
formation,  of  a  representation  of  each  individual  thumb,  accom- 
panied by  increased  dexterity  in  its  use ;  the  separation  of  the 
forefinger  sensations,  and  the  formation  of  a  forefinger  idea,  ac- 
companied by  increasing  dexterity ;  the  diff  erentation  of  hand 
and  feet  sensations,  the  growth  of  a  hand-idea,  accompanied  by 
the  growth  of  perceptions  of  things  seen  and  handled,  with  con- 
sequent desire  to  get  and  to  handle,  and  increased  dexterity  of 
hand  and  arm  movement ;  the  differentation  of  the  sensations 
of  each  hand  and  arm,  then  of  the  index  and  thumb  (for  uses 
of  grasping),  and  the  growth  of  the  corresponding  ideas. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  23 

In  the  thirty-eighth  week  the  first  decisive  acts  of  conscious 
imitation  were  observed.  These  showed  a  possible  recognition 
of  a  likeness  between  his  own  hands  and  those  of  another  person. 
In  the  thirty-ninth  week  came  the  concentration  of  the  sensations 
of  touch  in  the  index  finger,  and  (forty-fourth  week)  the  con- 
sequent development  of  a  peculiar  method  of  picking  up  small 
objects.  This  method  was  finally  superseded  by  another  older 
and  less  awkward  one.  After  the  fifty-second  week  develop- 
ment was  along  the  line  of  a  greater  perfection  of  the  movements 
acquired,  and  was  conditioned,  nay  called  forth,  by  the  child's 
experimentation  with  things  and  his  attemps  at  conscious  imita- 
tions of  the  actions  of  other  persons. 


SECTION  II.— VOLUNTARY  MOVEMENTS. 

RECORD. 

Fourth  Day. — If  some  one  kissed  the  hungry  child,  or 
touched  him  on  the  cheek,  he  turned  his  open  mouth  towards 
the  side  touched. 

In  the  second  week  the  child,  when  hungry  or  uncomforta- 
ble from  any  cause,  opened. his  mouth  and  rolled  his  head  from 
side  to  side,  as  when  searching  for  food.  This  he  did,  also,  if 
the  breast  slipped  from  his  mouth. 

Seventeenth  Day. — Wishing  to  regain  his  hold  of  the  breast 
he  turned  his  head  towards  it,  instead  of  rolling  the  head  from 
side  to  side. 

Thirty-second  Day. — Turned  the  head  in  the  direction 
whence  sounds  proceeded. 

Thirty-seventh  Day. — He  held  objects  which  he  clasped. 

Thirty-eighth  Day. — Mr.  C.  called,  and  the  baby  looked  at- 
tentively at  him.  When  sitting  on  his  mother's  lap  he  made 
vigorous  and  repeated  efforts  to  hold  his  head  erect  in  order  to 
see  this  visitor.  His  whole  body  quivered  with  the  exertion. 

Fifty-ninth  Day. — If  the  child  lost  his  hold  upon  the  nipple, 
with  open  mouth  and  eyes  fixed  upon  the  breast,  he  made 
« reaches '  with  his  head  and  neck  till  he  succeeded  in  regain- 
ing his  hold. 


24  KATHLEEN   CARTER   MOORE. 

Tenth  Week. — Having  learned  to  suck  his  thumb,  he  returned 
it  to  his  mouth  as  repeatedly  as  it  was  taken  away. 

Twelfth  Week. — Persistent  attempts  at  reaching  and  grasp- 
ing. Efforts  to  raise  his  body  from  a  reclining  to  a  sitting  posi- 
tion became  common. 

Seventeenth  Week. — Attempts  at  turning  the  body  over.1 
He  tried  to  get  a  ball  to  his  mouth,  and  was  annoyed  at  his  fail- 
ure to  do  so.  He  held  his  head  erect,  turned  it  to  the  side 
through  an  angle  of  90°,  and  raised  his  eyes  to  the  face  of  one 
who  had  spoken  to  him. 

Twenty-second  Week. — When  he  saw  approaching,  the  spoon 
from  which  he  received  his  water,  he  opened  his  mouth,  then 
seized  the  spoon  in  his  hand  and  pulled  it  towards  his  face. 

Twenty -fifth  Week. — In  trying  to  draw  the  breast  to  his 
mouth  he  put  his  hand  over  the  nipple.  When  he  found  that 
it  was  not  the  nipple  which  came  to  his  lips,  he  drew  back, 
looked  at  the  breast  for  a  few  moments,  then  removed  his  hand 
and  seized  the  nipple  between  his  jaws  as  usual. 

Twenty-ninth  Week. — The  child  expressed  his  desire  for 
food  by  pulling  at  his  mother's  dress. 

Thirty-third  Week. — At  noon  he  derived  great  pleasure  from 
playing  with  an  orange  which  had  been  given  him  by  his  father 
who  held  the  child  on  his  lap.  In  the  evening  he  saw  some 
oranges  in  the  fruit  dish  on  the  sideboard,  and  at  once  mani- 
fested excitement  by  the  usual  signs.  He  looked  from  the  fruit 
to  his  father  a  number  of  times,  making  sundry  little  noises. 
The  action  was  evidently  expressive  of  desire,  and  he  was 
much  pleased  to  have  an  orange  given  to  him. 

Thirty-fourth  Week. — The  child  had  a  spoon  to  play  with, 
and  was  deeply  interested  when  his  father  extended  his  hands 
to  take  him  up  from  his  chair.  He  looked  at  the  hands,  hold- 
ing out  one  of  his  own ;  but  when  about  to  extend  the  other  he 
turned  away  from  his  father  to  the  spoon,  withdrawing  the  one 
already  given.  Then  he  looked  back  at  his  father,  and  again 
started  to  give  his  hands,  but  once  more  turned  away.  This 

1  I  refer  to  such  actions  here  in  order  to  show  what  the  habitual  actions  were 
in  the  acquirement  of  which  the  child  was  occupied,  or  which  when  established 
entered  into  voluntary  actions. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  25 

performance  was  repeated  three  times,  until  in  a  longer  con- 
templation of  the  hands  he  seemed  to  forget  the  spoon. 

Thirty-fifth  Week. — He  threw  down  a  spoon,  to  which  a 
string  was  attached.  His1  mother  put  the  string  into  the  hand 
with  which  he  was  slapping  the  arm  of  a  chair.  The  move- 
ment of  his  hand  caused  the  spoon  to  rap  upon  the  floor.  The 
noise  surprised  him,  and  he  continued  to  slap,  seeming  to  think 
that  his  hand  on  the  arm  caused  the  sound.  Afterwards  he  dis- 
covered that  the  noise  could  be  made  when  his  hand  was  ex- 
tended beyond  the  chair,  and  holding  the  string  in  hand,  he  began 
to  beat  the  air  with  a  downward  motion,  as  if  hitting  something 
hard.  Only  occasionally  did  the  spoon  rap  upon  the  floor. 

Thirty-sixth  Week. — Conscious  repetition  of  one  of  his  own 
sounds  quoted  by  an  older  person  for  his  amusement. 

Thirty-eighth  Week. — Conscious  imitation  of  an  action,  the 
result  and  not  the  act  being  the  end  in  view,  (see  hand  move- 
ments p.  18). 

Fourtieth  Week. — The  spoon  with  which  he  was  playing 
fell  through  the  rounds  of  the  back  of  a  chair  which  was  lying 
on  its  side  in  front  of  him.  He  was  about  to  cry  at  its  loss,  but 
did  not  do  so,  and  tried  to  get  it.  The  first  attempts  were  unsuc- 
cessful, for  he  put  his  arm  through  the  wrong  opening,  and  each 
time  his  hand  was  too  far  from  the  spoon.  Finally  he  found  the 
opening  nearest  to  the  spoon,  which  he  recovered.  The  child 
succeeded  a  number  of  times  in  pulling  himself  to  his  feet  by 
the  aid  of  a  chair,  each  successful  attempt  alternating  with 
three  or  four  unsuccessful  ones. 

Forty-first  Week. — He  now  took  hold  of  the  far  end  of  an 
object  to  pull  it  towards  himself,  instead  of  touching  it  with  his 
finger  tips  and  pushing  it  farther  away. 

Forty-second  Week. — Intentional  but  unintelligent  repetition 
of  syllables  and  words. 

Forty-sixth  Week. — Creeping  became  a  habit.  When  the 
child  was  carried  into  a  room  in  which  someone  had  hidden,  he, 
when  told  to  do  so,  went  in  search  of  the  person,  whom  he 
located  by  the  sound  of  a  voice  emanating  from  the  hiding 
place.  On  the  fourth  trial  his  mother  threw  a  wrapper  over 
a  chair,  fastened  it,  and  hid  behind  the  chair.  When  the  child 


26  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

reached  the  chair  he  tried  to  pull  the  wrapper  down  as  he  had  pre- 
viously done  with  a  quilt,  but  found  this  impossible  to  him.  He 
sat  a  few  moments  as  if  in  thought,  then  crept  around  the  chair. 

Fifty-second  Week. — Request  for  food  expressed  by  extend- 
ing first  one  hand  and  then  the  other. 

Fifty-eighth  Week. — The  child,  who  was  sitting  beside  the 
kitchen  table  while  the  vegetables  were  being  prepared,  was 
given  pared  potatoes  to  drop  into  a  pan  of  water.  He  knew 
from  past  experiences  that  his  mother  would  not  permit  him  to 
put  them  into  his  mouth.  He  looked  at  his  mother,  and  if  her 
face  was  turned  away,  slyly  put  the  potato  up  to  his  lips. 

Sixty-first  Week. — He  succeeded  in  walking  alone. 

Sixty-fourth  Week. — He  took  hold  of  the  finger  and  led  one 
to  a  door  out  of  which  he  wished  to  pass,  or  went  behind  and  tried 
to  push  one  along.  Expressed  his  desire  to  be  taken  up  by  pull- 
ing at  ones  clothing. 

Seventy-third  Week. — He  was  one  day  walking  behind  his 
parents  as  they  were  leaving  the  grounds  in  which  the  buildings 
of  the  U.  S.  Fish  Commission  stood.  Four  separate  gates  led 
into  these  grounds,  two  small  ones  on  the  foot  paths,  and  two 
large  ones  on  the  carriage  ways.  The  child  in  his  carriage  had 
passed  in  and  out  of  each  gate  many  times  in  two  months.  The 
path  on  which  they  were  walking  was  separated  from  the  road- 
way by  a  grass  plot  and  gutter.  His  parents  passed  out  of  the 
gate  and  closed  it.  When  he  perceived  that  the  gate  was  closed, 
the  child  started  across  the  grass  towards  the  large  gate,  which 
stood  open.  Arrived  at  the  brink  of  the  gutter,  down  to  which 
the  grass  plot  sloped  in  a  short,  steep  incline,  he  hesitated  while 
glancing  from  the  incline  to  the  small  gate,  then  turned  quickly 
and  resolutely  back  across  the  grass  to  the  path,  and  walked  to 
the  small  gate  which  he  opened  and  out  of  which  he  passed. 

Seventy-fifth  Week. — In  an  adjoining  room  he  found  two 
pins,  things  which  had  always  been  taken  away  from  him. 
He  hastened  at  once  to  his  mother  with  them,  calling,  <  'mamma  ! 
mamma  !  "  in  a  tone  of  excitement.  He  gave  them  up  freely ; 
but  cried  bitterly  to  have  them  taken  away. 

Seventy -eighth  Week. — The  acquirement  and  practice  of 
new  words  occupied  him  at  this  time. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  27 

Eightieth  Week. — The  child  stood  his  bottle  on  the  floor, 
then  tilted  his  doll  over  it  to  take  a  drink. 

Eighty-second  Week. — He  accidentally  broke  the  head  of 
his  wooden  horse.  He  took  the  head  to  his  mother,  led  her  to 
the  horse,  pulled  her  down  to  the  floor  and  awkardly  put  the 
head  and  body  together  as  a  sign  that  he  wished  her  to  mend  it. 

Ninetieth  Week. — When  called  into  the  bath  room,  to  get 
ready  for  a  bath,  the  child  invariably  seated  himself  on  the 
floor  and  held  out  his  feet  to  have  his  shoes  taken  off. 

Ninety-first  Week. — He  got  a  cloth  and  imitated  his  mother 
in  polishing  the  piano.  <  Contrary '  actions  became  more  com- 
mon. They  increased  in  frequency  up  to  the  beginning  of  the 
twenty-fourth  month.  At  the  close  of  the  twenty-fourth  month 
they  became  less  frequent,  the  child,  understanding  language 
better,  became  more  amenable  to  verbal  suggestion. 

Ninety-ninth  Week. — Seeing  his  mother  fitting  a  collar,  he 
took  a  triangular  piece  of  cloth,  put  it  around  his  neck  and 
said,  *  fit ! '  Wiped  his  nose  with  the  same  and  called  it  a 
handkerchief,  spread  it  out  and  called  it  a  table  cloth. 

One  Hundred  and  First  Week. — Sometimes  he  gave  expres- 
sion to  his  purpose  before  acting.  Acts  of  conscious  imitation 
began  to  predominate. 

One  Hundred  and  Fourth  Week. — Actions  suggested  by 
association  became  very  prominent,  for  example,  when  taken 
into  the  kitchen  and  placed  on  a  certain  chair,  the  child  de- 
manded a  book  which  had  been  given  to  him  but  once,  three 
weeks  before,  when  sitting  on  the  same  chair. 

INTERPRETATION. 

If  it  be  true,  as  I  believe  the  evidence  adduced  in  this  paper 
proves,  that  voluntary  action  rises  out  of  the  performance  of 
instinctive  action,  we  should  seek  to  find  the  first  voluntary  move- 
ment not  in  the  first  deliberative  act,  nor  in  the  first  act  of  con- 
scious imitation,  but  in  the  repetition  of  an  act  which  had 
originally  caused  either  a  cessation  of  discomfort  or  a  sense  of 
gratification.  This  act  may  have  been  performed  from  one  to 
thirty  times  before  it  contained  an  element  of  volition.  But 


28  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

when  an  associative  link  had  been  established  between  some 
mental  representative  of  the  movement  and  the  feeling  of  satis- 
faction, so  that  the  movement  was  made  in  the  attainment  of 
satisfaction,  the  movement  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  voluntary 
one.  No  idea  of  the  effect  of  his  movement  considered  as  a 
cause  is  to  be  imputed  to  the  child.  On  its  intellectual  side  this 
primitive  act  of  volition  must  be  divested  of  representation  and 
choice,  and  regarded,  thus  stripped  of  that  which  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  think  of  as  belonging  to  volition,  as  an  extremely 
simple  response  to  a  suggestion  by  which  it  was  initiated. 
To  make  this  statement  more  clear  I  would  refer  the  reader 
to  the  record  of  voluntary  actions.  On  the  fourth  day  it  was 
recorded  of  the  child  that  if  touched  on  the  cheek  he  turned  his 
open  mouth  towards  the  side  touched.  This  the  newly  born 
baby  did  not  do.  Each  time  that  he  was  to  be  fed  the  child  was 
laid  in  a  certain  position,  and  the  nurse,  taking  his  head  between 
her  hands,  turned  it  slightly  to  one  side  in  order  to  put  his  lips 
against  the  nipple.  On  the  fourth  day  the  child  had  gone 
through  the  experience  some  thirty  times  as  a  preliminary  to  the 
satisfaction  of  hunger.  On  the  fourth  day  he  repeated  the  act 
of  his  own  accord.  But  he  could  not  have  had  in  mind  a  defi- 
nite desire,  impelling  him  to  make  efforts  to  obtain  his  mother's 
breast,  or  even  food,  since,  in  the  discussion  of  the  thumb  suck- 
ing habit,  it  was  clearly  shown  that  the  child  had  no  differen- 
tiated representation  of  his  mother's  breast  prior  to  the  sixteenth 
week,  and  as  he  was  satisfied  to  suck  when  hungry  without  re- 
ceiving milk,  it  could  have  been  no  demand  for  food  , thought  of 
as  such,  which  prompted  him.  The  act  was  the  representative 
of  one  of  several  contiguous  links.  But  this  is  not  volition,  it 
may  be  argued.  What  is  volition  but  action  under  the  stimulus 
of  an  idea?  True,  the  associations  were  not  ideas,  nor  connec- 
tions between  ideas.  But  there  were  no  real  ideas  existing  thus 
early  in  the  life  of  the  child ;  and  it  must  never  be  lost  to  view 
in  this  search  for  beginnings,  that  the  words  and  definitions 
framed  to  fit  a  psychology  of  the  adult  mind,  must  suffer  a  little 
expansion  if  they  are  to  be  used  at  all  in  describing  that  which 
is  most  primitive.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  associa- 
tions are,  on  the  intellectual  side,  the  forerunners  of  percep- 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  29 

tions,  representations  and  finally  of  concepts,  to  all  of  which 
they  are  genetically  related. 

I  have  called  the  first  stage  of  the  development  of  voluntary 
movements  the  associative  stage.  Certainly  all  actions  of  the 
first  three  weeks  belonged  to  it  exclusively,  and  throughout 
infancy,  movements  belonging  to  this  class  continued  to  be  made 
every  day.  The  perceptive  stage  was  the  next  to  be  developed, 
and  was  ushered  in,  when,  through  reiterated  experiences,  it  was 
possible  for  the  child  to  have  some  perceptions  of  the  objects 
which  acted  as  stimuli  to  the  various  departments  of  sensation. 
The  action  recorded  of  the  child  on  the  thirty-eighth  day  be- 
longed to  the  class  of  voluntary  actions  performed  under  the 
stimulus  of  a  perception.  To  this  class  also  belong  those 
efforts  of  the  child  to  reach  and  handle  the  many  objects  which  he 
saw.  When  it  was  possible  for  him  to  form  an  abstraction,  some 
idea,  however  incomplete,  of  a  thing,  an  action  or  an  experience, 
this  idea  without  the  mediation  of  a  direct  sensory  stimulus, 
served  to  initiate  action.  Volition  had  then  reached  the  repre- 
sentative stage. 

According  to  this  view  the  voluntary  actions  of  a  given  period 
were  made  possible  by  the  forms  of  activity  already  developed, 
and  consisted  in  an  application  and  extension  of  these  forms  to 
present  conditions,  which  application  and  extension  by  no  means 
implied  an  understanding  of  the  conditions.  Before  going 
further,  I  wish  to  emphasize  one  point,  namely,  that  nowhere 
did  I  find,  through  the  whole  series  of  observations,  numbering 
hundreds,  a  single  instance  of  an  action  of  which  it  could  be 
said,  here  entered  a  new  force,  for  here  was  an  action  without 
antecedents.  The  only  actions  without  antecedents  were  those 
movements  for  whose  performance  the  nervous  and  muscular 
mechanism  was  prepared  at  birth. 

In  order  to  facilitate  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  actions  re- 
corded as  voluntary  they  are  divided  into  four  classes  : 

i.  Those  which  had  their  origin  in  an  instinct  or  an  in- 
stinctive desire,  and  their  end  in  automatism  (or  habit)  after 
the  action  had,  by  means  of  endeavor  and  experience,  reached  a 
degree  of  perfection.  To  this  class  belong  such  as  balancing 
the  head,  standing,  walking,  etc. 


30  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

2.  Actions  in  which  the  child  made  use  of  acquired  dexterity 
of  movement  to  accomplish  some  aim.     They  may  be  considered 
characteristic  of  the  individual  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other, 
regarded  as  reactions  to  a  personal  environment.     They  do  not 
necessarily  become  habitual.     Within  this  class  belonged  those 
actions  which  involved  inference,  deliberation  and  choice. 

3.  Expressive    actions,   gestures  which   tend  ultimately  to 
become    habitual.     To  this    class   belong  such  as  the  one  in 
which  he  pulled  his  mother  by  the  dress  to  get  her  to  accom- 
pany him. 

4.  Actions  reproduced  upon  suggestion.     The  suggestions 
proceeded  either  directly  from   another  person,  from  an  object 
or  from  earlier  experiences  called  up  by  association.     These 
actions  became  very  common  when  the  child  had  some  com- 
mand of  language.     They   did  or  did   not  become  habitual, 
according  to  the  conditions  in  which  the  child  was  placed.     Acts 
of  conscious  imitation  should  be  included  in  this  class. 

The  persistence  everywhere  displayed  by  the  child  was  ex- 
traordinary, but  most  so  when  he  was  learning  to  perform 
movements  belonging  to  the  first  class. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  actions  of  the  second  class  should  have 
occurred  before  those  of  the  third;  the  latter  appeared  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  first  year  and  reached  their  largest  numeri- 
cal proportion  before  the  child  had  acquired  a  command  of 
language.  It  is  profoundly  significant  to  psychology  and  peda- 
gogy that  a  child  may  be  led  to  acts  involving  inference,  delib- 
eration and  choice,  through  his  experiences  with  himself  and 
things.  I  was  surprised  upon  being  confronted  with  this  fact, 
and  when,  at  the  close  of  the  second  year,  the  whole  subject  of 
voluntary  actions  was  reviewed,  it  would  seem  that  the  child  had 
performed  acts  of  greater  complexity  at  an  earlier  period.  It 
occurred  to  me  then  that  such  might  have  passed  unnoticed 
amid  the  multiplicity  and  diversity  of  the  actions  of  later  in- 
fancy. I  therefore  set  for  myself  the  task  of  looking  for  them. 
For  days  I  did  not  observe  one.  The  whole  character  of  the 
child's  performances  had  changed.  Everywhere  some  sugges- 
tion from  without  or  from  within  controlled  the  direction  of  ac- 
tivity. The  difference  was  apparently  in  favor  of  the  earlier 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  31 

performances ;  but  not  really  so,  for  the  later  acts,  in  being  the 
expression  of  thoughts  or  symbols,  marked  a  great  advance, 
while  in  the  earlier  ones  inference  and  choice  dealt,  not  in  the 
symbols  for  things,  but  with  the  things  themselves. 

In  the  later  half  of  the  second  year  it  became  possible  for  a 
purely  mental  stimulus  to  arouse  an  inclination  towards  action. 
Then  the  strange  period  of  perverseness,  through  which  so  many 
children  pass,  developed.1  At  the  time  of  the  appearance  of 
this  phase,  the  child  acted  almost  entirely  from  suggestion 
through  association.  Hence  when  a  certain  course  of  action 
was  proposed,  the  representation  of  the  opposite  course  was  at 
once  called  up  and  appealed  to  him  with  some  force,  since  the 
ability  to  perceive  the  consequences  of  either  act  was"  as  yet  un- 
developed. The  child  never  expressed  (in  contrary  mood)  the 
mere  negation  or  refusal ;  he  -proposed  an  alternative.  Fre- 
quently, though  not  always,  the  representation  did  not  prompt 
to  action,  and  fell  away  upon  the  repetition  of  the  suggestion. 
If,  however,  one  agreed  with  him,  saying  :  « Well,  we  shall  do 
as  you  wish,'  he  often  burst  into  tears,  demanding  that  the 
original  plan  be  carried  out,  and  thus  showed  the  side  on  which 
the  preponderance  of  desire  hung. 

The  movements  of  expression  arose  almost  without  excep- 
tion before  the  child  had  learned  to  express  himself  easily  in 
language  (between  the  sixth  and  twenty-second  months)  ;  but 
after  he  was  old  enough  to  try  to  make  his  wishes  known,  and, 
persisting  after  he  had  learned  to  speak,  they  were  frequently 
used  to  emphasize  his  demands.  A  description  of  the  rise  of 
one  will  elucidate  the  method  by  which  all  originated — a  method 
analogous  to  that  which  obtained  in  the  early  stages  of  language 
development.  In  the  twentieth  month  a  gesture  of  dismissal 
which  consisted  in  a  lateral,  chopping  motion  of  one  or 
both  arms,  became  habitual.  It  was  made  in  imitation  of  the 
sweep  of  the  arm  by  which  his  mother  brushed  away  the  flies 
which  came  around  the  food.  At  first  he  copied  the  action,  ex- 
claiming "  ly  !  ly  !"  (fly,  fly) .  Next  he  applied  it  to  food  which 
he  wished  to  refuse,  then  used  it  to  sweep  away  any  unpleasant 
object  or  distasteful  proposition,  and  finally  added  the  words, 

1  Contrary  suggestion,  Baldwin,  op.  cit.,  p.  145. 


32  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

*  take  it  away,'  (object),  or  *  good  bye,'  (proposition).  As 
associations  between  representations  multiplied,  the  child  daily 
performed  a  number  of  actions  dependent  thereon,  and  even 
performed  them  regularly  in  a  mechanical  sort  of  way  after  they 
had  lost  the  power  to  entertain  him.  He  objected  to  slight  de- 
viations from  the  regular  routine,  such  as  washing  the  feet  be- 
fore the  hands. 

He  was  never  given  to  that  quality  of  conscious  imitation 
which  at  once  attempts  to  reproduce  what  others  are  seen  to  do. 
Acts  of  conscious  imitation  did  not  begin  to  play  an  extremely 
important  part  till  he  had  gained  some  understanding  of  the 
meaning  involved  in  the  actions  of  others,  then  he  was  ever  ready 
to  do  his  share. 


SECTION   III.— INHIBITORY  MOVEMENTS. 

RECORD. 

Third  Day. — He  frequently  started  at  loud  noises  and 
ceased  crying. 

Twenty-fourth  Day. — The  striking  of  a  clock  caused  him 
to  stop  crying. 

Thirty-eighth  Day. — The  voice  of  his  father  caused  him  to 
stop  crying. 

Forty-first  Day. — Interesting  sights  diverted  the  child's  mind 
from  personal  discomforts,  great  enough  to  cause  crying. 

Forty-sixth  Day. — The  sound  of  rattling  spoons  caused  the 
child  to  stop  crying. 

Fifty-fifth  Day. — The  child,  who  had  been  held  more  than 
usual  during  the  second  month,  cried,  on  the  fifty-fifth  day, 
when  laid  down.  When  no  one  responded,  he  ceased  crying 
and  became  pleasant. 

Tenth  Week. — Inhibition  of  crying  was  of  frequent  occur- 
rence ;  the  child  often  stopped  with  his  face  made  up  to  cry,  the 
cry  being  lost  in  the  active  contemplation  of  some  interesting 
performance. 

Eleventh  Week. — If  the  hungry  child  was  fretting,  he  stop- 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  33 

ped  as  soon  as  he  saw  his  mother  begin  to  unfasten  her  dress, 
looking  at  her  with  wide  open  eyes,  and  breathing  quickly. 

Eighteenth  Week. — When  his  thumb  was  encased  in  a  stall, 
and  he  had  found  that  it  was  not  good  to  suck  thus,  he  held  his 
hand  quite  still  at  his  side. 

Nineteenth  Week. — Th  child  upon  waking  from  a  nap,  twice 
raised  his  thumb  almost  to  his  mouth,  then  put  his  hand  down. 

Twenty-eighth  Week. — For  two  days  in  succession  the  child 
who  had  before  been  held  at  the  table  during  the  meal,  cried, 
and  was  taken  to  the  dinner  table.  The  third  time  he  cried, 
(two  days  having  intervened)  this  was  not  done ;  but  he  was 
permitted  to  cry  until,  of  his  own  accord,  he  stopped.  After 
this  he  did  not  cry  again1  upon  seing  others  go  to  the  table. 

Seventh  Month. — The  child  liked  to  play  with  a  spoon,  with 
which  he  pounded  upon  the  table.  When  he  became  tired  of 
this  occupation  he  put  the  spoon  in  his  mouth  and  invariably 
poked  it  so  far  down  his  throat  that  he  choked.  After  he  had 
played  with  a  spoon  for  a  month,  and  choked  himself  times 
without  number,  he  in  the  thirty-sixth  week  learned  not  to  do  so 
any  more,  though  he  frequently  put  the  spoon  in  his  mouth. 

Thirty-ninth  Week. — Having  acquired  the  habit  of  sitting 
alone,  the  child,  sitting  on  a  quilt  on  the  floor,  plunged  forward 
after  a  toy  and  fell  off  the  quilt  on  his  face,  severely  bumping 
his  nose.  Thereafter  he  was  never  seen  to  plunge  forward 
after  a  lost  toy,  though  before  he  had  been  hurt  in  falling, 
this  performance  had  been  one  of  almost  hourly  occurrence. 

Fifty-seventh  Week. — The  fear  of  falling  having  become 
associated  with  experience  in  a  more  general  way,  the  child 
learned  to  take  better  care  of  himself  by  controlling  his  heed- 
lessness ;  but  a  strong  desire  was  still  sufficient  to  submerge  all 
prudence,  as  when  seeing  his  cup  on  the  floor,  he  would  have 
plunged  headlong  off  the  bed  after  it. 

Seventy-ninth  Week. — His  hand  was  extended  .to  take  from 
the  wash-stand  a  mug,  which  he  had  never  been  allowed  to 
have.  The  sight  of  his  mother,  who  upon  several  occasions 

1  The  question  here  arises  as  to  whether  crying  is  itself  unpleasant  to  the 
child.  There  seems  to  be  ground  for  believing  it  to  be  a  direct  source  of  dis- 
comfort. 


34  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

had  taken  the  mug  away,  was  enough  to  cause  him  to  withdraw 
his  hand. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  second  year  the  child  learned 
to  control  himself  in  several  directions.  He  could,  and  very 
frequently  did,  cease  crying  when  told  to  do  so.  (No  form  of 
punishment  had  been  inflicted  upon  him  to  teach  him  not  to  cry.) 

When  running  at  headlong  speed  he  frequently  failed  to  see 
a  table  or  other  piece  of  furniture  till  close  upon  it.  Then  he 
could  draw  up  so  shortly  that  one  could  see  no  space  between 
his  head  and  the  table  edge,  yet  escape  the  least  blow.  It  was 
often  a  matter  of  surprise  that  he  received  so  few  real  hurts. 
This  was  to  be  attributed  partly  to  the  ability  to  guide  himself 
around  dangerous  places,  partly  to  the  power  of  control  which 
enabled  him  to  call  a  stop  at  instant  notice. 

Through  training  the  child  had  acquired  a  certain  amount 
of  voluntary  control,  inasmuch  as  he  often  inhibited  certain  ac- 
tions, though  the  desire  to  perform  them  must  have  been  strong. 
In  the  twenty-third  and  twenty-fourth  months,  having  learned 
to  throw  his  ball  overhand,  he  took  delight  in  throwing  every- 
thing which  he  could  lift,  from  books  to  his  little  chair.  At 
this  time  he  was  especially  fond  of  sitting  beside  his  moth- 
er's desk,  playing  with  her  letters,  etc.,  while  she  was  writ- 
ing. He  almost  always  threw  each  article  away  in  a  few  mo- 
ments. This  practice  could  not  be  permitted ;  hence  he  was 
deprived  of  the  pleasure  of  sitting  in  the  high  chair,  a  severe 
punishment,  causing  many  tears  to  flow.  He  was  often  ob- 
served to  stay  his  hand  in  the  very  act  of  throwing,  and  instead 
pass  the  things  to  his  mother.  When  the  child  was  enjoined  not 
to  touch  something — the  table  set  for  a  meal,  for  example — he 
could  restrain  himself  if  not  too  long  exposed  to  the  temptation. 
If,  however,  he  yielded  at  all,  it  was  altogether.  He  would 
then  run  around  the  table,  taking  everything  within  his  reach, 
and  finally  pull  off  the  cloth. 

INTERPRETATION. 

Inhibition  was  first  induced  by  a  sense  stimulus,  which  in 
drawing  attention  into  another  channel  caused  a  movement 
already  in  progress  to  cease.  As  other  forms  of  inhibition 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  35 

arose  this,  the  sensorial  one,  did  not  disappear.  It  was  used 
by  the  persons  who  dealt  with  the  child,  who  endeavored  to  stop 
his  crying  and  prevent  the  performance  of  various  acts,  by  bring- 
ing forward  attractions  by  which  to  stimulate  sensation.  Thus 
it  became  related  to  suggestion.  The  inhibition  of  crying  was 
the  first  conspicuous  manifestation.  Very  soon  (eleventh  week) 
a  perception  in  which  was  involved  memory  of  an  agreeable 
sensation  induced  the  cessation  of  crying.  Later  the  recol- 
lection of  an  unpleasant  experience  caused  the  child  to  pause 
in  the  performance  of  a  voluntary  movement.  These  were  the 
steps  by  which  inhibition,  occurring  first  as  a  response  to  a 
counter  stimulus,  ultimately  became,  as  it  were,  engrafted  upon 
voluntary  action.  In  its  early  stages  inhibition  did  not  occur 
with  an  extensive  range  of  actions ;  but  was  developed  along 
with  special  forms  of  activity.  Experience  taught  the  child 
what  and  when  to  inhibit.  Sometimes  the  lesson  of  experience 
was  learned  only  after  a  long  course  of  training ;  sometimes  a 
single  hard  lesson  sufficed  to  define  a  boundary  of  control. 
The  cases  cited  in  the  record  serve  to  show  how  intimate  a 
relationship  existed  between  inhibitions  and  the  acquirement  of 
bodily  control  and  dexterity.  If  we  consider  them  in  connec- 
tion with  this  relationship  we  find  ourselves  once  more  in  the 
territory  of  habitual  and  voluntary  movements. 


SECTION  IV.— SOME  AUTOMATIC  MOVEMENTS. 

RECORD. 

In  the  early  weeks  of  life  perfect  repose  during  sleep  was 
rare.  Starting,  movements  of  the  hands  and  feet,  low  noises 
and  brief  fits  of  crying  disturbed  the  slumber  of  the  child,  espe- 
cially during  the  day,  when  the  noises  of  the  street  exerted  their 
influence  also.  About  the  sixth  week  sleep  began  to  be  more 
peaceful ;  gradually  the  child  became  a  quiet  sleeper,  except 
when  uncomfortable  from  some  indisposition. 

Thirty-ninth  Day. — The  child,  by  this  time,  objected  to  hav- 
ing his  hands  covered,  and  even  when  asleep  removed  them 
from  beneath  the  covers. 


36  KATHLEEN   CARTER   MOORE. 

Twenty-third  Week. — When  a  steam  siren  blew,  which  had 
previously  awakened  him,  the  child  cried  out  in  his  sleep  with- 
out opening  his  eyes. 

Twenty-fifth  Week. — With  eyes  tightly  shut,  the  sleeping 
child,  lifted  from  his  crib,  could  find  the  breast  quickly  and  suckle 
as  well  as  when  awake.  As  soon  as  satisfied,  he  fell  back,  his 
body  stiffened,  as  if  prepared  to  be  laid  down.  He  objected  to 
the  covering  on  his  feet,  and  invariably  kicked  it  off  when 
asleep. 

Thirty-second  Week. — Having,  by  dint  of  repeated  efforts, 
learned  to  roll  on  the  floor,  the  child  in  the  thirty-second  week 
began  to  roll  in  his  crib  during  sleep. 

Thirty-eighth  Week. — When  the  thumbs  were  tied  up  the 
child  sucked  a  forefinger.  This  he  never  did  in  sleep,  though 
under  the  same  circumstances  he  would  have  taken  his  thumb. 

Fortieth  Week. — The  sleeping  child,  after  having  been  fed, 
lay  across  his  mother's  knees  while  his  clothing  was  arranged. 
A  pair  of  slippers  was  on  the  bed  beside  them.  He  stretched 
out  his  hand  and  encountered  a  slipper,  which  he  grasped  and 
carried  to  his  mouth,  babbling  as  he  did  so.  During  the  per- 
formance his  eyes  were  closed.  He  then  opened  his  eyes,  looked 
for  a  moment  at  a  light  in  the  next  room,  let  go  of  the  slipper, 
closed  his  eyes  and  was  immediately  asleep. 

Forty-fifth  Week. — In  the  fortieth  week  he  learned  to  suck 
milk  from  the  bottle.  In  the  forty-fifth  week  he  was  not  able 
to  fall  asleep  while  doing  this ;  but  within  a  week  it  became 
possible  to  him  to  do  so.  Then  the  bottle  was  given  to  him  at 
10  130  P.  M.,  when  he  was  sleeping.  Upon  being  disturbed  he 
put  up  his  hand  as  was  his  wont,  to  his  mother's  neck,  but  re- 
ceiving the  bottle  he  carried  it  to  his  mouth  and  drank  the  milk. 
This  performance  was  the  more  noteworthy  as  the  rubber  nip- 
ple sometimes  collapsed,  making  it  necessary  that  the  child 
should  release  it  in  order  that  it  might  be  refilled  by  air  and 
milk,  a  trick  which  he  had  learned  only  after  some  practice. 

Fifty-fifth  Week. — The  child  had  acquired  the  habit  of  pul- 
ling his  own  ear  or  that  of  another  person  while  sucking  his 
thumb.  When  disturbed,  but  not  awakened,  he  immediately 
put  his  thumb  into  his  mouth  and  began  to  pull  his  ear. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  37 

SECTION    V.— MOVEMENTS    OF    EMOTIONAL    EX- 
PRESSION. 

RECORD. 

First  Day. — When  uncomfortable  the  child  cried. 

Sixth  Day. — Smiled  when  comfortable. 

Seventh  Day — Smiled  at  his  father  four  consecutive  times, 
accompanying  the  smile  with  movements  of  the  arms. 

Tenth  Day. — Tear  secretion  observed  for  the  first  time. 

Seventeenth  Day. — Fretting — a  sort  of  cry — expressed  dis- 
comfort. 

Twentieth  Day. — Smiling  at  persons  became  more  frequent, 
and  the  smile  more  intelligent. 

Forty-sixth  Day. — Laughed  aloud  upon  several  occasions 
(at  persons.)  The  laugh  consisted  of  a  smile  accompanied  by 
a  sound  caused  by  alternate  expiration  and  inspiration ;  it  did 
not  resemble  the  coordinated  laughter  of  the  later  months. 

Fifty-fifth  Day. — Displeasure  indicated  by  hard  crying  and 
rigidity  of  the  whole  body,  which  was  so  complete  that  if  taken 
by  the  hands  he  could  be  raised  to  his  feet  without  having  bent 
the  vertebral  column  and  lower  limbs. 

Sixty-first  Day. — Pursing  of  the  lips  accompanied  fixed 
attention. 

Tenth  Week. — Rapid,  alternate  flexions  and  extensions  of 
the  limbs  in  excitement  were  first  observed  in  this  week. 

Twelfth  Week. — Kicking  and  waving  the  arms  became  the 
habitual  method  of  venting  excitement,  and  were  sometimes 
accompanied  by  pursing  of  the  lips.  While  on  a  journey  a 
phenomenon  was  noticed  for  the  first  time  which  afterwards 
occurred  frequently ;  namely,  the  retention  of  the  urine  dur- 
ing an  exciting  experience.  Six  hours  was  the  longest  period 
during  which  the  urine  was  retained,  but  throughout  the 
journey  the  intervals  were  uniformly  longer  than  they  had 
hitherto  been.  From  the  twelfth  week  to  the  close  of  the  sec- 
ond year  the  child  never  visited  a  new  house,  saw  visitors  at 
his  own  home,  became  deeply  absorbed  in  any  occupation  or 
plaything  without  the  occurrence  of  this  phenomenon.  After 


3  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

the  ninth  month  excitement  interfered  with  evacuation  of  the 
faeces  also.  By  the  twelfth  week  the  voice  had  become  more 
expressive  of  the  child's  states  of  feeling. 

Thirteenth  Week. — Expectancy  (of  food)  accompanied  by 
a  quivering  of  the  body  and  sundry  little  noises. 

Sixteenth  Week. — Tear  secretion  was  established.  When 
hurt  he  began  his  cry  with  a  loud,  explosive  4  Ma-a.'  When 
getting  hungry  or  sleepy  he  fretted,  and  gradually  broke  into  a 
cry.  Sometimes  his  eyes  filled  with  tears  preliminary  to  the 
utterance  of  a  cry.  Sometimes  he  first  drew  down  the  cor- 
ners of  his  mouth  and  whimpered.  Great  excitement  in  novel 
experiences  was  accompanied  by  protrusion  of  the  lips,  wide 
opening  of  the  eyes,  during  forward  inclination  of  the  body, 
reaching  with  the  hands,  rapid  movements  of  the  arms  and 
legs,  trembling  of  the  body  and  especially  of  the  arms  and 
hands,  and  accelerated  respiration.  In  surprise  his  eyes  were 
widely  opened. 

Eighteenth  Week. — When  suddenly  surprised  the  child  started 
and  threw  out  his  hands.  In  a  broad  smile  his  whole  scalp  was 
seen  to  move.  A  broad  smile,  with  wide  opening  of  the  mouth, 
expressed  extreme  pleasure.  Frowning  accompanied  great 
effort.  General  repose  of  the  face  indicated  bodily  comfort. 
Grunts  accompanied  by  a  twisting  and  turning  from  side  to  side 
indicated  bodily  dissatisfaction.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the 
child  had  ever  felt  fright. 

Nineteenth  Week. — Writhing  and  twisting  of  the  body  ex- 
pressed delight. 

Twenty-fourth  Week. — Kicking  and  laughing  accompanied 
pleasure.  Good  health  and  high  spirits  found  vent  in  loud 
laughter  and  occasional  screams. 

Twenty-fifth  Week. — Disappointment  (when  not  taken  out 
of  doors)  indicated  by  fretting  and  scolding.  Vigorous  kick- 
ing in  which  the  feet  were  used  alternately,  indicated  excite- 
ment. The  rythmical  striking  of  one  foot  against  the  other  leg 
indicated  displeasure.  The  rapidity  of  the  movements  seemed 
to  be  a  measure  of  the  strength  of  the  feeling.  In  hard  crying 
he  rolled  his  body  from  side  to  side,  or  held  his  legs  raised  and 
rigid,  but  flexed  slightly  at  the  knees. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  39 

Thirtieth  Week. — The  movements  made  during  displeasure 
became  rythmical.  They  consisted  in  turning  the  body  to  the 
side,  succeeded.by  the  recovery  of  the  first  position,  or  throwing 
out  and  drawing  in  the  arm,  or  in  the  flexion  and  extension  of 
one  leg.  It  was  customary  for  him  to  repeat  the  action  again 
and  again  at  short  and  regular  intervals.  The  child  was  ob- 
served to  frown  when  slightly  annoyed. 

Thirty-third  Week. — He  acquired  a  new  form  of  smile, 
which  gradually  but  not  entirely  supplanted  the  broad,  open- 
mouthed  smile  referred  to  above.  The  nose  was  wrinkled  up, 
the  eyes  nearly  closed,  the  angles  of  the  slightly  parted  lips 
were  drawn  backward,  and  the  jaws  were  approximated. 
This  smile  seemed  to  express  an  extreme  and  more  conscious 
enjoyment.  For  a  long  time  it  was  never  observed  in  the  pres- 
ence of  strangers. 

Thirty-fourth  Week. — When  sitting  had  become  a  habit, 
vigorous  kicking  as  the  outlet  of  enjoyable  excitement  gave 
place  to  a  jumping  up  and  down  of  the  whole  body.  Frowning 
as  an  expression  of  displeasure  became  frequent  and  persisted. 

Forty-third  Week. — Delight  was  expressed  by  a  piercing 
scream,  accompanied  by  flapping  of  the  arms  and  rubbing 
of  the  feet  back  and  forth  upon  the  floor. 

Forty-sixth  Week. — Delight  was  expressed  by  a  shiver  such 
as  might  accompany  a  sudden  chill. 

Fifty-second  Week. — He  no  longer  shivered  with  pleasure  ; 
this  habit  he  had  gradually  abandoned. 

Fifty-fifth  Week. — A  mischievous  look  was  seen  for  the 
first  time.  Thereafter  it  was  frequently  observed. 

Seventy-eighth  Week. — Shyness  was  indicated  by  hiding  the 
head.  The  squarely  open  mouth  in  crying  was  observed.  It 
had  occurred  earlier,  but  I  neglected  to  record  its  first  appear- 
ance. 

Eighty-Seventh  Week. — In  fits  of  temper,  which  were  pro- 
voked by  attempts  to  force  his  clothing  upon  the  child,  and  to 
make  him  go  in  a  given  direction,  he  struggled  and  bit.  This 
practice  lasted  but  a  few  weeks. 

One  Hundred  and  Fifth  Week. — At  the  close  of  the  second 
year,  in  the  excitement  of  pleasure,  the  child  stamped  rapidly 


4°  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

and  alternately  with  each  foot,  his  hands  trembled,  his  eyes 
sparkled.  Finally,  as  though  he  could  contain  himself  no 
longer,  he  often  ran  round  and  round  the  room  as  fast  as  he 
was  able.  He  smiled  frequently ;  but  loud  laughter  was  not 
usual  except  when  playing  with  other  children,  or  his  elders. 
In  crying,  the  habit  of  drawing  down  the  corners  of  the  mouth 
had  largely  superseded  that  of  opening  the  mouth  squarely. 
Throughout  infancy,  as  in  adult  life,  the  voice  was  the  chief 
instrument  of  expression ;  but  I  have  here  omitted  to  treat  of 
it  because  it  would  be  impossible  to  transcribe  its  many  indi- 
cations of  feeling  changes ;  and  for  the  further  reason  that  the 
growth  of  the  ability  to  use  the  voice  is  alluded  to  under  Lan- 
guage. 

INTERPRETATION. 

In  treating  the  subject  of  movements  of  expression  my  only 
aim  is  to  describe  the  prominent  features  of  the  changes  which 
took  place  during  the  development  of  the  child.  In  the  early 
weeks  the  facial  expression  varied  greatly  from  hour  to  hour. 
The  continual  changes  were  not  due  to  definite  emotional 
causes,  but  resulted  from  spontaneous  movements  of  the  mus- 
cles of  the  face.  When  the  child's  attention  was  deeply  en- 
grossed, he  was  comparatively  still,  for  the  spontaneous  move- 
ments then  partially  ceased.  During  profound  sleep,  also,  the 
muscles  of  the  face  were  more  quiet  than  in  a  light  sleep. 
While  awakening,  which  sometimes  required  so  long  a  time  as 
half  an  hour,  the  changes  in  facial  expression  were  most 
marked. 

The  question  of  the  first  smile  is  one  which  has  led  to  much 
discussion.  The  popular  belief  seems  to  be  that  any  smile 
occurring  before  the  child  is  a  month  (some  say  six  weeks) 
old  is  due  to  pain  resulting  from  digestive  disturbance. 
My  observations  point  conclusively  to  the  erroneousness  of 
this  belief  (as  applying  to  one  individual.)  Prior  to  the  fifth 
week  the  child  smiled  but  rarely.  On  and  after  the  fifth 
week  smiles  were  often  to  be  observed.  The  first  smiles 
were  clearly  different  from  the  later  ones.  They  were  pro- 
duced by  the  muscles  around  the  mouth ;  the  muscles  around 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  41 

the  eyes  did  not  participate  noticeably.     They  were  extremely 
evanescent.    They  occurred  under  the  following  circumstances  : 

(1)  Almost  invariably  when  the  child,  having  been  fed  and  laid 
in    a    comfortable   position,  was  peacefully  dropping  to  sleep ; 

(2)  During  the  light  sleep  which  succeeded  a  deep  and  restful 
one,  and  occasionally  during  all  sleep  ;   (3)   Occasionally  at  per- 
sons.    They  never  occurred  when  the  child  was  known  to  be  in 
pain.     The  smile  changed   with   the  expression  of   the  face, 
the  two  gaining  in  the    appearance  of   intelligence.     Finally 
the  whole  face,  and  even  the  scalp,  seemed  to  unite  in  produc- 
ing   a   smile.     When   the  intelligent  human    smile  had    quite 
superseded  the  earlier  form,  it  occurred  like  its  predecessor, 
when  the  child,  in  perfect  comfort,  was  sinking  into  sleep. 

I  may  now  briefly  summarize  a  few  other  facts  taught  by 
the  observations,  i  It  will  be  seen  that  there  existed  at  birth 
no  well  defined  movements  of  pleasurable  expression,  for,  even 
the  smile,  observed  within  the  first  week,  has  been  challenged 
to  prove  its  right  to  that  office ;  on  the  other  hand  the  method 
of  expressing  displeasure,  discomfort  and  pain  was  perfected 
at  birth.  2  The  method  of  expressing  pleasure  or  pleasur- 
able excitement  underwent  many  transformations ;  but  the 
method  of  expressing  displeasure  did  not  pass  through  so  many 
changes.  3  The  method  of  expressing  pleasure  became 
clearly  defined  with  the  dawning  of  intelligence,  and  its  transi- 
tions corresponded  to  features  of  mental  and  bodily  development. 
4  A  method  of  expressing  displeasure  without  crying  was 
developed,  peculiarly  rythmical  (resembling  in  this  respect  the 
rocking  to  and  fro  of  a  person  in  agony),  as  compared  with 
the  jerky  or  explosive  nature  of  the  method  by  which  the 
child  gave  vent  to  feelings  of  pleasurable  excitement.  The 
prominent  part  taken  by  the  feet  and  legs  whenever  a  strong 
emotion  of  either  kind  was  finding  expression  is  well  worthy 
of  note. 


42  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

SECTION  VI.— REFLEX  MOVEMENTS. 
RECORD. 

First  Day. — First  cry.  He  l  nestled'  close  to  a  person  who 
held  him. 

Third  Day. — He  started  at  loud  noises. 

Twentieth  Day. — When  water  was  squeezed  from  a  sponge 
over  his  head  and  face,  he  closed  his  eyes  and  mouth,  which 
he  did  not  do  at  six  months  of  age.  (The  practice  of  pouring 
water  over  the  head  having  in  the  meantime  been  discontinued.) 

Twenty-second  Day. — Upon  exposure  of  the  face  to  the 
rays  of  a  bright  light  during  sleep,  tighter  closing  of  the  eye- 
lids was  observed. 

Forty-ninth  Day. — He  threw  out  the  arms  when  lowered 
into  a  bassinet.  This  occurred  earlier,  and  was,  by  its  first  ob- 
server, ascribed  to  an  instinctive  fear  of  falling.  I  failed  to  note 
exactly  the  date  of  its  disappearance,  though  by  the  sixth  month 
it  no  longer  took  place. 

Twelfth  Week. — Each  time  the  train  stopped,  started  or 
jolted  during  a  journey  lasting  twenty-four  hours,  whether  the 
child  was  waking  or  asleep,  he  threw  out  his  arms  as  when  low- 
ered into  a  bed.  While  driving  over  a  rough  road  he  clutched 
the  clothing  of  the  person  holding  him  when  the  wagon  lurched. 

Eighteenth  Week. — He  turned  away  the  head  from  a  strong 
light.  This  action  he  did  not  perform  after  the  sixth  month, 
and  as  late  as  the  twenty-fourth  month  he  was  often  puzzled  as 
to  which  way  to  turn  his  head  to  avoid  the  direct  rays  of  the 
sun.  He  raised  the  hands  as  if  to  ward  off  something,  if 
touched  during  sleep. 

Twenty-second  Week. — He  appeared  as  if  frightened  when 
the  train  passed  under  bridges,  even  very  short  ones ;  but  the 
loud  noise  of  passing  trains  failed  to  disturb  him. 

Twenty-fifth  Week. — He  clutched  the  arm  and  clothing  of  a 
person  lifting  him  during  sleep.  (He  had  never  fallen.) 

Thirty-second  Week. — When  lifted  up  during  sleep  he  drew 
his  feet  close  to  his  body  as  if  their  soles  had  been  tickled.  Gen- 
eral restlessness  in  illness,  activity  in  health. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  43 

INTERPRETATION. 

For  purposes  of  utility  I  have  in  this  paper  chosen  a  natu- 
ral, rather  than  a  philosophical  definition  of  instinct.  It  is  one 
which  serves  a  two-fold  purpose,  designating  a  particular  form 
of  inherent  activity  and  serving  as  a  basis  upon  which  to  sepa- 
rate out  allied  forms  which  are  called  reflexes.  Since  my 
studies  were  in  development  and  my  records  dealt  in  changes, 
I  did  not  make  reflexes  the  subject  of  a  special  investigation ; 
but  noted  such  as  appeared  from  time  to  time  during  the  early 
weeks  of  life.  While  the  definition  of  instinct  calls  for  an  ele- 
ment of  consciousness,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  any  conclu- 
sive evidence  is  at  hand  showing  such  to  be  wanting  in  reflexes. 
So  little  of  emotional  expression  was  developed  during  the  first 
few  weeks  of  life,  that  it  was  difficult  to  decide  whether  the  so- 
called  reflexes  were,  or  were  not,  accompanied  by  consciousness. 
I  have,  therefore,  found  the  evidence  of  consciousness  to  lie,  not 
in  the  action  itself,  but  in  the  subsequent  history  of  the  act. 
If  one  of  two  acts  performed  at  the  same  period  should  be  re- 
peated with  little  or  no  variation,  only  on  the  recurrence  of  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  first  performed ;  and  if  the 
other,  continually  changing  and  expanding,  gave  rise  to  new 
reactions  in  dissimilar  circumstances,  some  justification  may  be 
found  for  ascribing  an  element  of  consciousness  to  the  second 
which  we  withhold  from  the  first. 

SUMMARY. 

The  movements  first  selected  for  development  were  instinc- 
tive. Pleasure  was  not  felt  as  such  at  birth.  Feelings  of  dis- 
comfort were  felt,  but  not  distinguished  one  from  another ;  they 
were  strong.  The  first  instinctive  acts  alleviated  feelings  of  dis- 
comfort ;  and  comfort  (or  satisfaction)  was  the  result.  Move- 
ments directed  toward  the  attainment  of  comfort,  replaced  in  a 
measure  the  mere  expression  of  discomfort.  Satisfaction  or 
pleasure,  as  an  end  or  goal,  then  emerged  in  consciousness ;  it 
corresponded  to  desire.  After  the  growth  of  desires,  develop- 
ment proceeded  rapidly,  in  response  to  a  demand  for  the  satis- 
faction of  them. 


44  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

If  we  review  the  movements  which  have  survived,  we  find 
them  to  have  existed,  (a)  as  instinctive  movements  alone ;  (b) 
as  modifications  of  and  additions  to  instinctive  movements — 
direct  accommodations  to  environment ;  (c)  as  instinctive  plus 
spontaneous  movements.  No  conclusive  case  is  recorded  of  a 
spontaneous  movement  which  alone  has  afforded  a  foundation 
for  the  development  of  further  complex  acts. 

But  the  pleasurable  feeling  resulting  from  satisfaction  is  not 
enough  to  account  for  the  reproduction  of  acts.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  an  associative  link  should  have  been  formed  between 
a  mental  correlative  of  the  act  and  the  feeling,  in  order  that  a 
repetition  of  the  act  might  be  insured.  Ample  evidence  is  at 
hand  of  such  links  having  been  formed. 

The  development  of  the  individual  is  thus  seen  to  have  de- 
pended upon  three  factors  : 

1.  Upon  inheritance  as  expressed   (a)   in  instincts,  (b)  in 
the  structure  of  the  body,  the  relations  of  whose  bony  and  mus- 
cular parts  were  such  as  to  make  possible  only  certain  move- 
ments, and  to  exercise  a  control  upon  the  range  and  direction  of 
movements,  (c)  in  the  structure  and  functions  of  the  nervous 
system,  which  rendered  it  capable  of  receiving  forms  of  stimula- 
tion and  responding  to  them,  and  which,  moreover,  was  so  con- 
stituted that  paths  once  opened  by  stimulation  and  discharge, 
were  thereby  rendered  the  more  pervious  to  the  reiterated  in- 
fluences of  like  stimulations  and  discharges,  and,    (d)  by  the 
possession  of  consciousness. 

2.  Upon  environment  in  a  broad  sense,  comprising  all  things 
which  might  act  as  stimuli,  from  the  food  which  the  child  took 
and  the  manner  of  taking  it,  to  the  objects  which  he  handled 
and  the  persons  who  surrounded  him ;  but  especially  upon  those 
features  of  the  environment  which,  by  their  persistence,  acted  as 
continued  stimuli  through  whose  instrumentality  the  fundamen- 
tal movements  of  future  activities  became  habitual. 

3.  Upon  the  plasticity  of  structures  and  functions. 


PART  II.— SENSATIONS. 

SECTION  I.— SIGHT. 

OBSERVATIONS  ON   THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  VISUAL    PERCEP- 
TION. 

First  Day. — The  eyes  were  opened  by  only  a  narrow  crack. 
Sometimes  they  remained  closed  when  the  child  was  awake. 
The  eye  balls  rolled  constantly,  whether  the  eyes  were  open  or 
shut.  Upon  exposure  to  strong  light  the  pupils  underwent  little 
alteration. 

Second  Day. — At  twenty-nine  hours  the  child  looked  intently 
at  a  bright  light  (of  a  lamp) .  At  forty-four  hours  his  eyes  fol- 
lowed the  movement  of  a  pair  of  shining  calipers,  and  he  ap- 
peared to  look,  but  without  focusing  the  eyes,  at  his  father  who 
held  them. 

Third  Day. — At  seventy-five  hours  his  eyes  were  wide  open, 
and  turned  from  one  object  to  another.  The  eyes  were  not  in 
focus.  Convergence  of  the  axes  was  marked. 

Seventh  Day. — Focus  still  imperfect.  His  eyes  again  fol- 
lowed a  moving  object.  He  looked  successively  at  the  faces 
of  three  persons  who,  standing  in  a  row,  bent  over  him. 

Eighth  Day. — He  was  seen  to  focus  his  eyes  in  looking  at 
a  hand.  He  looked  fixedly  at  the  hand  when  it  was  quiet,  and 
followed  it  when  moved.1  He  lay  awake  for  half  an  hour  look- 
ing at  his  surroundings. 

Tenth  Day. — His  eyes  were  often  in  focus.  His  eyes  fol- 
lowed the  hand  of  a  person  beside  whom  he  was  lying,  five  times 
in  its  course  back  and  forth  across  some  sewing. 

Twenty-sixth  Day. — Attention  and  interest  were  excited  by 
persons  and  light. 

1  Here  unfortunately  the  notes  have  failed  to  record  whether  or  not  his  eyes 
maintained  their  focus  while  following  the  hand,  and  the  plane  and  direction  in 
which  the  hand  was  moved. 

45 


46  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

Twenty-eight  Day. — He  turned  his  head  (while  lying  down) 
in  order  to  follow  with  his  eyes  the  face  of  a  person  speaking 
to  him. 

Thirtieth  Day. — At  twilight  he  turned  his  eyes  from  a  gas 
jet  burning  within  a  ground  glass  globe,  to  an  adjacent  twilight 
window,  at  which  he  looked  fixedly. 

Thirty-first  Day. — His  attention  was  engaged  by  a  blue 
sacque  (upon  its  first  appearance),  of  a  shade  was  similar  to 
that  of  a  blue  piano  scarf  at  which  he  had  often  looked. 

Thirty-ninth  Day. — As  the  child  lay  looking  at  the  wall, 
which  was  illuminated  by  lamplight,  his  father's  head  was  so 
interposed  as  to  cut  off  his  view.  Thereupon  he  moved  his 
eyes,  and  afterwards  his  head,  in  order  to  see  again  the  wall 
behind  the  obstacle. 

Forty-fourth  Day. — Instead  of  dropping  to  sleep  as  he  had 
previously  done  when  taken  for  a  walk,  the  child  remained 
awake  and  interested  himself  in  looking  about. 

Forty-seventh  Week. — He  watched  the  window  as  the  light 
faded,  keeping  quiet  and  absorbed  for  half  an  hour.  He  con- 
tinued to  look  with  interest  at  the  golden  brown  curtain  which 
had  held  his  gaze  on  the  twentieth  day.  By  this  time  he  habit- 
ually kept  awake  when  carried  out  of  doors.  He  looked  with 
interest  at  the  beard  of  a  male  visitor. 

Fifty-seventh  Day. — He  was  amused  by  watching  silent 
movements  of  the  lips  and  tongue. 

Fifty-ninth  Day. — He  was  interested  in  looking  out  of  the 
window  at  the  trees,  whose  newly-opened  leaves  were  con- 
stantly in  gentle  motion ;  also  in  watching  an  empty  chair  rock- 
ing before  him,  the  separate  movements  of  which  his  eyes  did 
not  follow. 

Sixtieth  Day. — He  showed  that  he  distinguished  between  a 
familiar  and  an  unfamiliar  face,  by  smiling  at  the  former  and 
regarding  the  latter  seriously,  with  the  pursed  lips  characteristic 
of  attention. 

Tenth  Week. — The  child  at  once  noticed  a  stray  lock  of 
hair  which  was  hanging  at  the  side  of  his  mother's  face.  When 
riding  in  the  horse-car  he  tried  to  sit  up  and  look  around,  and 
was  annoyed  by  a  shawl  raised  in  front  of  his  face  to  protect 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  47 

him  from  wind  and  dust.  While  crying  he  was  laid  upon  a 
sofa  above  which  a  gas  jet  was  burning.  The  moment  he  saw 
the  light  his  crying  ceased,  and  his  whole  body  began  to  move 
in  excitement.  Interest  and  excitement  were  maintained  with- 
out interruption  for  half  an  hour.  The  light  was  then  put  out. 
Eleventh  Week. — The  child  looked  repeatedly,  and  as  if 
comparing  them,  from  the  face  of  one  person  to  that  of  another. 
Upon  a  journey,  the  lights  on  the  ceiling  of  the  sleeping  car 
gave  him  entertainment.  During  the  day  he  lay  on  a  pillow 
and  looked  continually  at  the  figured  linen  on  the  back  of  the 
seat,  or  at  the  ceiling  of  the  car. 

Twelfth  Week. — When  hungry,  the  child  cried  if  his  mother 
appeared.  Most  of  his  waking  moments  were  spent  in  his 
bassinet  on  a  porch,  watching  the  trees  moving  in  the  wind 
against  the  sky.  Thus  occupied  he  often  lay  for  an  hour, 
quiet  except  for  the  movements  which  accompanied  deep 
interest. 

Fifteenth  Week. — The  child  observed  his  own  reflection  in 
a  mirror.  After  the  tenth  week  he  had  looked  at  the  image 
of  the  face  of  the  person  holding  him,  never  at  the  reflection  of 
himself.  Later  in  the  fifteenth  week  he  smiled  at  his  own 
image. 

Sixteenth  Week. — He  looked  at  his  own  pink  dress  and 
occasionally  at  some  swinging  balls.  A  red  and  yellow  ball 
were  offered  him,  he  took  the  yellow  one  once,  but  could  not  be 
induced  to  reach  again.1 

Seventeenth  Week. — The  child  was  taken  for  a  drive  (in  the 
country)  during  which  he  was  so  much  interested  that  he  be- 
came neither  sleepy  nor  hungry.  He  directed  his  gaze  contin- 
ually to  all  quarters.  He  observed  a  white  cotton  string  which 
was  stretched  above  his  bed  and  parallel  with  it,  and  from  which 
his  balls  were  suspended.  He  made  many  efforts  to  turn  him- 
self in  order  to  follow  its  course  above  and  behind  him.  He 
looked  at  trees,  etc.,  outside  of  the  window;  but  not  at  articles 
of  furniture  and  movable  objects  within  the  room.  He  watched 
people.  He  recognized  his  mother  as  reflected  in  a  mirror. 

Nineteenth  Week. — A  box  of  blooming  nasturtiums  stood 
did  he  baffle  attempts  at  experiments. 


4-S  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

within  his  field  of  vision.  The  child  was  never  seen  to  give 
them  more  than  a  passing  glance.  One  day  a  humming  bird 
visited  the  flowers.  He  watched  the  bird  with  interest,  and  fol- 
lowed its  flight  with  eyes  and  head.  In  the  midst  of  a  heavy 
shower  the  child  watched  a  single  stream  of  water  which  trickled 
from  the  roof  and  fell  splashing  upon  the  steps.  He  gazed  out 
of  the  window,  then  turned  his  glance  indoors,  looking  from 
one  piece  of  furniture  to  another.  After  this  he  habitually  re- 
garded the  furniture  with  interest.  He  began  to  notice  flowers. 
He  still  enjoyed  watching  the  fading  light. 

Twentieth  Week. — Upon  one  occasion,  in  the  eighteenth 
week,  the  child  withdrew  crying  from  contact  with  a  person  clad 
in  black,  who  had  also  a  loud  voice.  He  afterwards  saw  per- 
sons so  attired  without  evincing  the  least  aversion  to  any  one  of 
them.  A  little  kitten  placed  in  his  lap  failed  to  elicit  any  re- 
sponse from  him.  He  was  interested  in  seeing  his  mother  eat. 
He  watched  the  cutting  of  the  food  and  followed  attentively  the 
course  of  each  bit  from  the  plate  to  the  mouth.  Thus  he  was 
entertained  during  a  meal. 

Twenty-second  Week. — When  taken  (in  the  city)  for  the 
first  ride  in  his  carriage,  he  looked  at  horses,  carts  and  other  pass- 
ing objects,  and  at  the  parasol  over  his  head. 

Twenty-third  Week. — After  an  absence  of  some  twelve 
weeks  the  child  was  taken  home.  He  at  once  observed  the 
changed  surroundings,  and  during  the  first  day  looked  around 
the  room  continually.  The  golden  brown  curtain  referred  to 
above  attracted  the  child's  attention,  and  he  watched  it  with  as 
much  interest  as  he  had  shown  earlier.  He  laughed  when  he 
saw  his  mother  don  her  hat.  The  association  of  the  sight  of  the 
hat  with  going  out  was  formed  within  ten  days.  In  the  country 
his  mother  had  not  worn  her  hat  when  out  with  the  child. 

Twenty-fourth  Week. — Once  again  he  would  take  no  notice 
of  a  kitten.  He  did  not  notice,  nor  did  he  appear  to  see,  a  baby  ; 
but  smiled  at  the  woman  who  held  her. 

Twenty -seventh  Week. — He  observed  a  large  picture  of  a  boy 
on  the  wall  of  a  strange  house,  and  a  landscape  on  the  wall  of 
his  own  room.  He  perceived  a  single  human  hair.  He  per- 
ceived people  and  wagons  a  block  away,  and  watched  their  ap- 
proach and  disappearance. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  49 

Thirty-first  Week. — He  discovered  the  shadow  of  his  car- 
riage, and  watched  it  for  half  a  mile. 

Thirty-third  Week. — When  riding  in  a  horse-car,  the  straps 
swinging  overhead  interested  the  child.  The  other  people  in 
the  car  also  interested  him,  and  he  observed  the  objects  which 
they  held  in  their  hands.  It  became  habitual  with  him  to  look 
after  objects  which  had  been  dropped.  He  recognized  an  orange 
at  a  distance  of  several  feet  and  in  new  surroundings. 

Thirty-ninth  Week. — A  rubber  cat  and  ball  were  given  to  the 
child.  He  took  the  ball  and  played  with  it ;  but  the  cat  received 
no  notice. 

Fortieth  Week. — He  made  fairly  good  estimations  by  the 
eye  of  size  and  distance. 

Forty-third  Week. — It  gave  the  child  delight  to  see  a  person 
leave  the  room  and  close  the  door,  then  suddenly  open  the  door 
and  reappear. 

Forty-fourth  Week. — He  examined  his  nursing  bottle  with 
great  interest. 

Forty-fifth  Week. — He  distinguished  between  two  bottles  con- 
taining respectively  milk  and  water,  and  chose  the  bottle  of  milk. 
He  failed  to  follow  the  rapid  movements  of  his  father,  who 
passed  quickly  in  front  of  the  child  from  one  side  to  the  other. 
Each  time  the  child  greeted  his  father  in  a  new  position  with 
surprise,  then  looked  to  the  one  which  he  had  just  vacated. 
When  his  father  ran  quickly  round  and  round  the  child,  who 
sat  upon  the  floor,  he  remained  quite  still,  puzzled  and  unable 
to  follow.  When  red  and  yellow  balls  were  offered  to  him,  he 
took  the  yellow  6  times  out  of  10 ;  afterwards  he  would  not 
reach  for  them. 

Forty-ninth  Week. — The  child  was  greatly  distressed  to  see 
a  familiar  object  for  the  first  time  out  of  place.  A  clothes 
hamper,  usually  occupying  a  corner,  was  during  his  absence 
placed  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  Upon  his  return  he  imme- 
diately perceived  it  and  began  to  cry.  His  crying  ceased  when 
it  had  been  returned  to  its  proper  position. 

Fiftieth  Week. — He  stood  before  a  mirror  and  made 
grimaces  at  his  own  reflection.  He  stopped  the  performance 
upon  perceiving  in  the  mirror  that  he  was  observed. 


50  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

Fifty-first  Week. — He  observed  another  baby  with  interest. 

Fifty-eighth  Week. — He  recognized  a  person  whom  he  had 
seen  but  once,  and  for  a  few  moments,  three  days  before,  but 
by  whom  he  had  been  hurt.  He  was  much  interested  in  ob- 
serving dogs,  birds  and  a  cow.  He  observed  other  children 
closely. 

Sixty-fourth  Week. — Caterpillars,  bugs,  beetles  and  worms 
became  interesting  to  the  child.  He  examined  the  feet  and 
legs  of  some  frogs. 

Sixty-sixth  Week. — He  recognized  the  locality  of  the  house 
in  which  he  stayed,  and  of  the  laboratory  in  which  his  father 
worked. 

Sixty-ninth  Week. — Pictures,  righted  or  reversed,  interested 
him. 

Seventy-sixth  Week. — During  a  journey  the  child  was  enter- 
tained not  only  by  what  he  saw  within  the  car,  but  by  looking 
out  of  the  window  and  viewing  the  passing  objects. 

Seventy-seventh  Week. — During  three  months  the  child  had 
seldom  lookedjin  a  mirror.  When,  at  the  end  of  this  period,  he 
was  held  before  one,  he  at  once  recognized  his  own  reflection 
as  that  of  a  baby. 

Eighty-second  Week. — He  noticed  the  moon,  and  spon- 
taneously called  it  a  light. 

Ninety-fourth  Week. — He  began  to  use  the  word  *  big '  in 
such  a  way  as  to  reveal  an  appreciation  of  the  size  of  objects 
seen. 

One-hundredth  Week. — He  never  evinced  the  least  prefer- 
ence for  colored  over  uncolored  pictures.  By  this  week  he 
could  distinguish  the  details  of  pictures  whose  area  did  not  ex- 
ceed %  of  an  inch. 

VISION. 

In  dividing  my  observations  upon  vision  into  three  classes, 
I  obtain  series  of  facts  from  which  to  study  some  aspects  of 
sensations  in  general,  and  from  which  to  follow  the  course  of 
the  development  of  the  ability  to  see. 

Class  I.  includes  all  records  relating  to  sensation  proper; 
namely,  those  which  reveal  (a) the  ability  of  the  child  to  experi- 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  51 

ence  sensations  of  a  given  quality,  and  to  react  in  a  manner 
peculiar  to  them  ;  and  those  which  show  (b)  that  it  is  possible  to 
obtain  through  observation,  data  for  the  estimation  of  the  inten- 
sities of  sensations  (  or  perceptions)  relatively  to  one  another. 

Class  II.  includes  observations  pertaining  to  the  muscular 
adjustments  which  were  requisite  to  the  accomplishment  of  clear 
vision. 

Class  III.  contains  observations  illustrating  the  growth  of  the 
perception  of  things  seen. 

Sensations  of  light  experienced  during  the  first  day  were 
probably  relatively  insignificant ;  for  very  little  light  could  have 
penetrated  to  the  retina  through  the  narrow  chink  of  the  nearly 
closed  lids.  The  child  was  born  at  3  :2O  P.  M.,  on  the  ipth  of 
March.  He  was  therefore  exposed  to  the  light  of  day  for  but  a 
brief  time  during  the  first  sixteen  hours.  At  night  only  a  dim  light 
was  burned  in  the  room.  He  slept  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  first  24  hours,  and  his  eyes  were  often  closed  even  when  not 
asleep.  Hence  it  was  that  the  child,  on  the  day  following  birth, 
was  not  continuously  subjected  to  the  influence  of  the  rays  of  a 
bright  light.  At  the  beginning  of  the  second  day  he  opened 
his  eyes  more  widely.  At  29  hours  he  responded  by  a  definite 
reaction  to  a  retinal  stimulus  received  from  the  full  light  of  a 
Rochester  lamp.  The  reaction  consisted  in  resting  the  gaze 
upon  the  object  of  stimulation ;  it  pointed  to  the  occurrence  of 
sensation,  but  gave  no  clue  to  its  value  in  relation  to  the  strength 
of  the  stimulus. 

Simple  as  this  reaction  was,  and  inconclusive  as  it  might  be 
considered  by  one  who  had  not  closely  observed  the  developing 
child,  certain  facts  relating  to  the  influence  exerted  upon  atten- 
tion by  diverse  objects  at  once  help  to  place  such  a  reaction  in  a 
position  of  importance,  and  give  it  the  right  to  be  considered  a 
true  concomitant  of  a  sense  impression  of  a  definite  kind. 

Before  going  further  in  the  subject  of  sensations  I  must  di- 
gress slightly  to  explain  what  these  facts  were,  and  must  ask 
the  reader  to  bear  them  in  mind  as  he  proceeds.  When  the 
child  was  very  young,  only  an  extremely  limited  number  of  ob- 
jects called  forth  reactions  at  all.  This  number  increased  with 
age  and  experience.  It  was  possible  to  present  to  him  one  new 


52  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

thing  after  another  without  eliciting  the  least  perceptible  re- 
sponse. Things  were  repeatedly  shown  to  the  child  which, 
though  in  the  immediate  field  of  vision,  he  appeared  not  to  see. 
Examples  in  the  recorded  observations  which  illustrate  this  are 
to  be  found  in  records  for  the  i5th,  ipth,  2Oth  and  39th  weeks. 

In  the  history  of  individual  development  there  may  be  found 
an  unbroken  chain  of  reactions  which  show  more  clearly  than 
words  can  describe,  just  what  the  course  of  unfolding  was. 
When  a  response  followed  the  presentation  of  an  object  which 
might  act  as  a  stimulus,  and  was  repeated  with  the  recurring 
advent  of  the  object,  the  response  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  defi- 
nite reaction,  accompanying  an  impression  made  upon  a  sense 
organ  which  was  in  the  proper  condition  for  its  reception.  I 
would  not  be  understood  to  claim  that  the  objects  which  called 
forth  no  reaction  aroused  no  sensation ;  but  that  those  which 
called  forth  a  reaction  did  cause  a  sensation,  while  others,  such 
as  objects  seen  in  indirect  vision,  frequently  failed  to  arouse 
that  form  of  reaction  which  accompanied  the  stimulation  of  the 
sense  organ. 

In  the  study  of  sensation  as  such,  I  have  ruled  out,  so  far  as 
possible,  all  cases  in  which  the  perceptive  element  was  present. 
This  was  an  extremely  difficult  matter  to  accomplish  in  dealing 
with  records  other  than  those  of  the  earliest  days.  The  early 
sensations  may  have  been  accompanied  by  the  conscious  recog- 
nition of  the  objects  causing  them ;  but  it  is  in  a  high  degree 
doubtful  whether  they  were  so  accompanied.  It  is,  however, 
certain  that  they  were  not  attended  by  those  groups  of  associ- 
ations which  soon  began  to  gather  round  experiences.  When 
a  large  surface,  uniformly  colored,  engaged  the  attention 
of  the  child  and  held  it  for  perhaps  fifteen  minutes,  an 
example  was  given  of  stimulation  and  reaction  which  did  not 
necessitate  a  perception  of  the  colored  surface,  as  distinguished 
from  an  illuminated  one,  nor  did  it  inevitably  involve  any  ele- 
ments of  association  whatsoever. 

In  part  I.1  of  this  work  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  child 
might  experience  sensations  without  distinguishing  them  one 
from  another,  and  this  fact  must  be  again  emphasized  here. 

1  Movements,  p.  14. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  53 

The  study  of  the  growth  of  the  power  to  discriminate  is 
closely  associated  with  the  development  of  the  ability  to  per- 
ceive. That  the  child  reacted  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  a  certain 
form  of  stimulation  is  not  a  proof  that  he  distinguished  this  from 
some  other  form,  to  which  he  had  previously  reacted  in  a  dif- 
ferent manner,  or  that  the  second  stimulation  and  reaction  called 
up  the  first.  On  the  whole,  I  think  we  must  admit  that  the  first 
sensations  at  least  approached  somewhat  closely  to  our  notion 
of  what  extremely  simple  ones  should  be ;  to  wit,  feelings  unat- 
tended by  memory,  anticipation  or  discrimination. 

The  order  in  which  the  child  displayed  the  ability  to  experi- 
ence qualities  of  visual  sensation  was  as  follows, 

Light,  undoubtedly  the  first  retinal  sensation,  was  experienced 
early  in  the  second  day.  On  the  seventh  day  he  gave  evidence  of 
having  experienced  sensations  in  indirect  vision.  On  the  fifteenth 
and  twentieth  days  he  possibly  experienced  color  sensations,  blue, 
golden-brown  and  red  having  been  the  colors  which  might  have 
acted  as  stimuli  (none  pure  tones  of  the  colors,  they  represented) . 
On  the  thirty-first  day  a  white  surface,  receiving  no  direct  illu- 
mination, acted  as  a  stimulus,  also  a  blue  surface.  On  the 
thirty-fourth  day  a  blue  and  white  object  and  the  golden-brown 
curtain  arrested  his  attention.  On  the  fifty-third  day  a  plaid 
waist  in  which  scarlet  was  the  predominating  color  interested 
the  child.  In  the  sixteenth  week  he  looked  repeatedly 
at  his  pink  dress.  In  the  twenty-third  week,  after  a  long 
absence  from  home,  the  golden-brown  curtain  again  attracted 
his  attention.  He  did  not  give  conclusive  proof  of  the  ability 
to  recognize  colors  till  the  second  year,  when  he  showed 
that  he  recognized  (without  having  received  any  instructions) 
the  following  colors :  pink  (eighty-fourth  week) ,  yellow 
(eighty-ninth  week) ,  black  (ninety-fourth  week) ,  blue  (ninety- 
seventh  week),  red  (ninety-eighth  week),  light  brown  and 
gray  (ninety-ninth  week).  Light  always  interested  the 
child.  After  the  thirtieth  day  he  was  pleased  for  some  weeks 
to  watch  the  window  as  daylight  faded  to  darkness.  On  the 
thirty-sixth  day,  light  reflected  from  eye-glasses  called  forth 
repeated  expressions  of  pleasure.  In  the  tenth  week  a  burning 
gas  jet  proved  deeply  interesting,  though  the  roaring  and 


54  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

flickering  of  the  flame  doubtless  influenced  him  also.  In  the 
eighty-sixth  week  he  used  words  to  point  out  distinctions  of  light 
and  darkness. 

Before  the  tenth  week  the  child  gave  no  evidence  of 
having  received  impressions  from  objects  smaller  than  the 
features  of  the  human  face.  In  the  tenth  week  he  looked 
attentively  at  a  stray  lock  of  dark  hair  hanging  beside  a  familiar 
face.  Large  objects  and  surfaces,  moving  or  illuminated,  at- 
tracted his  gaze  in  the  early  weeks.  In  the  seventeenth  week  a 
single  strand  of  white  cotton  string  such  as  comes  from  the 
grocer's,  interested  the  child.  In  the  twenty-third  week  he 
watched  some  flies  on  the  window  pane.  In  the  forty-fourth 
week  small  objects,  such  as  bread  crumbs,  became  interesting 
to  the  child. 

The  simplest  test  of  the  strength  of  a  sensation  was  that  it 
should  be  followed  by  a  motor  reaction.  In  order  to  get  some 
data  for  comparisons  we  have  to  inquire  whether  there  existed 
any  well  marked  differences  in  the  motor  reactions  themselves 
from  which  something  might  be  learned,  as  to  the  relative  value 
of  the  sensations  which  they  accompanied  respectively.  Such 
differences  were  clearly  present.  They  were  to  be  found  in  the 
varying  force  of  reactions.  Reactions  of  greater  force  were  of 
two  kinds  ;  the  first  of  which  consisted  of  impulses,  prolonged  and 
involving  a  few  muscles  ;  the  second,  of  impulses,  diffuse  and  in- 
volving a  great  many  muscles,  notably  those  used  in  the  ex- 
pression of  attention,  and  of  the  feelings  of  pleasure  and  pain. 
For  example,  when  experiencing  a  sensation,  the  child  some- 
times remained  quiet  for  half  an  hour,  his  gaze  rivetted  upon 
the  object,  or  again,  by  a  quivering  of  the  whole  body,  flexions 
and  extensions  of  the  members,  acceleration  of  respiration,  etc., 
gave  every  evidence  of  excitement.  It  was  not  observed  that 
attention  accompanied  by  signs  of  excitement  endured  for  a 
shorter  time  than  attention  accompanied  by  bodily  quiet  ;*  it 
cannot,  therefore,  be  inferred  that  sensations  accompanied  by 
the  expression  of  excitement  were  of  greater  intensity  than  those 
not  so  accompanied.  That  they  might  have  been  so,  is  not  to  be 

1  This  is  not  to  be  taken  to  mean  complete  repose,  which  with  the  young 
infant  was  to  be  observed  only  during  sleep. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  55 

denied.  But  it  was  clearly  shown  in  the  history  of  development, 
that  the  marked  expressions  of  excitement  did  not  accompany 
the  early  sensations,  which  were  characterized  rather  by  a  quiet, 
prolonged  interest  in  the  object ;  while  the  later  sensations,  in 
the  main  associated  with  perceptions,  had  involved  in  their  con- 
comitant reactions,  those  movements  which  revealed  the  diffusion 
of  the  motor  impulse.  That  it  was  possible  for  a  sensation  to 
be  felt  without  calling  forth  a  definite  reaction  was  shown  by  the 
evidence  of  indirect  vision.  An  object  seen  in  indirect  vision 
failed  to  attract  attention,  while  an  interesting  object  seen  in 
direct  vision  was  present ;  but,  when  for  any  reason,  the  object 
of  direct  vision  failed  to  hold  attention,  the  eyes  were  frequently 
turned  to  the  second  object  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  this, 
as  well  as  its  predecessor,  had  made  an  impression.  There 
were,  therefore,  three  somewhat  rough  measures  of  the  com- 
parative intensities,  of  sensations,  which  were  :  first,  of  suf- 
ficient intensity  to  be  felt  without  immediately  causing  a  re- 
action ;  or,  second,  of  sufficient  intensity  to  be  followed  by  a 
transient  motor  reaction ;  or,  third,  of  sufficient  intensity  to  be 
followed  by  a  reaction  which  endured  often  as  long  as  half  an 
hour,  which  reaction  consisted  sometimes  of  those  movements 
which  were  the  peculiar  attendants  upon  the  stimulation  of  a 
given  sense  organ,  plus  the  signs  of  attention,  sometimes  in  the 
said  movements,  plus  the  signs  of  excitement. 

The  ability  to  see  small  objects  depended  upon  the  acquire- 
ment of  the  muscular  adjustments  essential  to  monocular  and 
binocular  vision,  and  is  therefore  related  to  the  subject  of  eye 
movements. 

The  development  of  eye  movements  might  well  have  been 
treated  along  with  movements  in  general  in  Part  I.  The  ques- 
tions which  there  arise  as  to  the  original  forms  of  other  move- 
ments,  and  the  methods  by  which  variety  and  skill  grew  up, 
arise  here.  Was  the  first  successful  eye  movement  a  chance 
coordination,  or  a  reaction  to  a  simultaneous  stimulation  of  two 
organs  of  sight  ?  It  would  seem  that  the  movements  of  the  eye  mus- 
cles which  pertain  to  vision,  originated  like  other  movements  in 
some  such  primitive  reaction  or  coordination  as  has  elsewhere 
been  called  an  instinct  ;J  and  that  the  subsequent  coordinations 

Movements,  p.  9. 


56  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

neccessary  to  focus,  fixation,  etc.,  were  built  up  upon  this  basis. 
That  the  history  of  the  development  of  other  movements  has 
suggested  this  view  to  me  I  must  frankly  state.  Nevertheless 
the  careful  consideration  of  the  evolution  of  eye-movements 
would  seem  to  point  to  it  independently. 

On  the  second  day  the  eyes  followed  the  movement  of  a  pair 
of  calipers — a  shining  object  illuminated  by  daylight.  There- 
fore following  with  both  eyes  preceded  focusing  and  occurred 
immediately  after  the  first  determinate  reaction  to  light  stimulus. 
Following  with  the  eyes  would  thus  appear  to  belong  among 
the  inherent  reactions  as  clearly  as  do  clasping,  sucking,  etc. 
Amid  the  spontaneous  eye-movement  of  the  first  few  days 
such  a  reaction  stood  out  very  conspicuously.  A  great  many 
movements  besides  those  of  the  eye  muscles  are  associated  with 
vision.  There  are  movements  of  the  eyelids  which  allow  of 
the  entrance  of  light,  and  of  the  extension  upwards  of  the  field 
of  vision,  and  all  the  accessory  neck  and  trunk  movements  by 
which  the  eyes,  along  with  the  head,  are  carried  into  a  better  po- 
sitions for  seeing.  None  of  these  accessory  movements  (except 
that  of  opening  the  eyes)  were  observed  during  the  first  three 
weeks. 

The  eyes  were  not  seen  to  be  in  focus  before  the  eighth  day. 
On  that  day  the  child  focused  his  eyes  upon  a  hand  which  was 
held  above  him  at  a  distance  greater  than  one  foot,  but  not  ex- 
ceeding two.  After  the  tenth  day  the  eyes  were  frequently  in 
focus. 

Spontaneous  eye  movements  occurred  more  rarely  as  time 
passed.  By  the  eighteenth  week  spontaneous  movements  had 
ceased  to  be  noticeable,  and  the  eyes  were  usually  in  focus. 

By  the  twenty-seventh  week  he  had  acquired  so  nice  an  ad- 
justment that  he  was  able  to  perceive  a  single  human  hair. 
Earlier  than  the  thirty-seventh  day  little  was  recorded  as  to  the 
accommodation  of  the  eyes  to  near  and  distant  vision.  It  was, 
however,  certain  that  the  child  perceived  objects  at  distances 
varying  from  six  inches  to  ten  feet  after  the  tenth  day.  On  the 
thirty-first  day  his  gaze  followed  the  departing  figure  of  his 
mother  across  the  room,  a  distance  of  ten  feet,  and  the  accom- 
modation to  the  slow  increase  of  distance  was  fairly  good.  By 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  57 

the  fifty-ninth  day  he  could  perceive  from  the  second  story  win- 
dow trees  some  fifteen  feet  away. 

At  twelve  weeks  he  perceived  moving  objects  at  distances  of 
25  to  50  feet.  In  the  twenty-seventh  week  he  perceived  objects 
in  the  street  a  block  away  and  watched  their  approach.  After 
the  eighteenth  week,  when  holding  objects  in  his  hands  and  look- 
ing at  them,  he  usually  held  them  at  a  distance  for  good  vision. 

In  the  second  day,  as  has  been  said  before,  the  eyes  of  the 
child  followed  the  movement  of  an  illuminated  object.  On  the 
third  day  they  again  followed  a  moving  object.  On  the  seventh 
day  they  turned  in  succession  towards  each  of  a  row  of  three 
objects,  a  phenomenon  somewhat  different  from  that  of  follow- 
ing movement,  since  it  involved  indirect  vision,  and  movements 
made  in  response  to  sensations  thus  received.  On  and  after 
the  tenth  day  his  gaze  frequently  followed  a  moving  object. 
Active  direction  of  the  gaze  towards  an  object  of  interest  was 
not  observed  until  the  thirty-ninth  day,  and  head  as  well  as  eye 
movements  were  involved  in  this  direction.  By  the  seventeenth 
week  he  was  able  to  direct  his  gaze  in  all  ways.  In  the  tenth 
week  he  evinced  a  desire  to  sit  up  in  order  to  see.  In  the 
seventeenth  week  he  turned  the  body  as  well  the  head  to  extend 
the  range  of  vision ;  in  this  week  he  held  his  head  erect,  turned 
it  to  the  side,  and  raised  his  eyes  to  see  the  face  of  one  who  had 
spoken  to  him. 

Previous  to  the  nineteenth  week  he  had  followed  only  very 
slow  movements  ;  but  in  this  week  he  made  a  distinct  advance  in 
being  able  to  follow  the  flight  of  a  humming  bird  as  it  passed 
from  flower  to  flower,  hovering  for  an  instant  at  each.  In  the 
forty-fifth  week  he  was  utterly  unable  to  follow  rapid  move- 
ments of  a  large  body  back  and  forth  and  round  and  round. 
Nor  did  he  follow  the  course  of  a  falling  object,  but  discovered 
its  position  on  the  floor  from  the  sound  of  the  fall.  In  the  sixty- 
sixth  week,  lying  on  his  back,  his  eyes  followed  the  flight  of  a 
fly  which  circled  somewhat  slowly  above  his  bed.  As  late  as 
the  close  of  the  second  year  he  was  rarely  successful  in  per- 
ceiving the  course  of  a  projectile,  (i.  £.,  a  ball  thrown  by  the 
hand) . 

He  could  perform  more  rapid  movements  of  the  body  than 


58  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

the  eye  could  perceive  when  performed  by  objects  or  other  per- 
sons. 

The  development  of  the  perception  of  objects  of  vision  is 
closely  connected,  on  one  side  with  an  increasing  sensibility 
to  the  influence  of  a  greater  variety  of  stimuli,  and  on  the  other 
with  the  development  of  the  movements  which  pertain  to  vision. 
All  study  of  sensations  which  extends  beyond  the  territory  of 
the  first  sense  impressions,  trespasses  upon  the  confines  of  per- 
ception ;  and  the  consideration  of  the  growth  of  the  susceptibil- 
ity to  various  qualities  of  sensation  is  so  entangled  with  that  of 
growth  of  the  ability  to  perceive  objects  of  sense,  that  it  must  be 
treated  along  with  the  discussion  of  the  latter  question. 

I  have  explained  above  the  manner  in  which  the  term  sen- 
sation is  used,  and  have  pointed  out  that  the  child  probably  had 
but  few  pure  sensations  as  compared  with  the  number  of  per- 
ceptions, and  that  those  nearest-to-pure  sensations  belonged  to 
the  early  days.  Nevertheless  there  must  have  been  many  occa- 
sions throughout  infancy  when  a  new  experience,  a  new  form 
of  stimulus  produced  an  effect  closely  allied  in  nature  to  those 
early  sensations.  There  was,  however,  one  significant  differ- 
ence which  characterized  the  later  sensations  as  partially  per- 
ceptive— they  were  roughly  classified  and  referred  to  their 
proper  domain  in  the  territory  of  sensation. 

The  confounding  of  sensations,  (not  the  failure  to  localize 
them)  which  was  conspicuous  earlier  in  life,  gave  place  to  the 
ability  to  distinguish  them  one  from  another.  New  reactions  arose, 
based  upon  differentiated  sensations.  These  reactions  showed 
the  paths  which  the  differentiation  had  pursued.  The  first  per- 
ceptions were  immediately  the  result  of  the  first  sensations  and 
the  reactions  to  them.  The  differentiation  of  sensation  was  ac- 
complished by  means  of  reactions,  and  it  was  not  possible  for 
perceptions  to  occur  till  sensations  had  undergone  such  differen- 
tiations.1 

The  term  perception  is  here  taken  to  mean  the  recognition 
of  the  presence  of  an  object  of  sense.  All  objects  possibly  pre- 
sent to  sense  did  not  arouse  reactions  which  showed  them  to 
have  stimulated  sensation,  nor  did  all  objects  which  stimulated 

JFor  illustrations  see  Touch,  below. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  59 

sensation,  come  to  be  immediately  perceived.     The  requisites  of 
perception  were : 

i.  Sensation 


__ 
A.  4  2.  Reaction 

3.  A  second  sensation,  or  sensations,  resulting  from  the 

reaction. 

T,    C  The  repetition  of  A  a  sufficient  number  of  times  to  estab- 
'  c  lish  an  associative  connection  of  i  and  2  with  3. 

It  will  at  once  be  seen,  according  to  this  view,  that  no  per- 
ception could  have  occurred  without  a  foundation  in  sensation 
and  reaction ;  and  that  sensations  and  perceptions  did  not  occur 
at  haphazard  upon  the  infant  intelligence,  an  unassorted  medley 
pouring  in  a  steady  volume  upon  it ;  but  that  the  ability  to  re- 
ceive and  to  perceive  developed  side  by  side  along  definite  lines. 

Visual  preceptions,  like  muscular  adjustments,  were  the  re- 
sult of  the  training  received  through  experience.  The  early 
reactions  were  the  instinctive  movements  which  followed  upon 
the  stimulation  of  the  retinae ;  but  as  seeing  was  replaced  by 
looking,  new  reactions  were  manifested,  and  feature  after 
feature  of  the  surroundings  grew  through  reiterated  influence,  to 
have  some  meaning  for  the  child.  The  familiar,  not  the  un- 
familiar things  then  took  on  a  deep  interest  for  him.  He 
watched  them,  and  in  following  their  changes,  got  perceptions 
of  details,  and  of  new  objects  in  relation  to  the  old.  The  history 
of  perception  tells  of  this  steady  advance,  on  the  one  hand,  to- 
wards the  perception  of  more  in  the  familiar,  on  the  other,  to- 
wards the  perception  of  change  in  the  familiar. 

To  the  twenty-eighth  day  the  history  consists  in  an  enumer- 
ation of  things  which  interested  the  child  and  engaged  attention. 
On  the  twenty-eighth  and  thirty-first  days  in  order  to  see  more 
of  an  object,  he  put  forth  effort  in  the  form  of  new  adaptations 
of  movement.  After  the  thirty-first  day  there  was  steady  pro- 
gress in  singling  out  features  of  the  environment. 

In  the  record  several  instances  are  noted  of  the  failure  of 
objects  to  elicit  attention.  The  example  of  the  cat  was  a  good 
one.  When  a  kitten  was  shown  to  the  child  in  the  twentieth 


60  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

week  he  seemed  not  to  see  her.  He  had  previously  seen  no 
small  animals  whatsoever.  In  the  thirty-ninth  week  a  rubber 
cat  was  given  to  him  for  a  plaything,  which  proved  equally  un- 
interesting. During  the  following  summer  he  handled  animals 
of  all  sizes  and  often  saw  a  cat  and  her  family  of  kittens.  The 
rubber  cat  in  the  meantime  had  been  left  at  home.  After  his 
return  it  was  immediately  singled  out  as  an  object  of  special 
affection.  It  was  given  a  name,  '  lum,'  by  which  all  cats  were 
then  designated,  and  finally  fell  to  pieces  as  a  consequence  of  too 
much  handling. 

He  perceived  adults  before  he  noticed  children  (whom  he 
rarely  saw  closely  during  the  first  year) ,  and  was  interested  in 
pictures  of  persons  for  months  before  he  cared  for  illustrations 
of  other  things.  About  the  sixty-ninth  week  his  interest  in  pic- 
tures increased  greatly  and  he  began  to  look  at  them  himself. 
Naturally  he  got  them  inverted.  The  reversal  never  seemed  to 
trouble  him  in  the  least,  and  until  the  ninety-third  week,  he  con- 
tinued to  look  at  them  either  way  with  evident  enjoyment.  In 
the  eighty-third  week  he  was  able  to  point  out  the  details  of 
familiar  and  unfamiliar  pictures  when  looking  at  them  inverted. 
It  was  not  until  the  ninetieth  week  that  he  became  interested  in 
pictures  representing  a  diversity  of  unfamiliar,  as  well  as  of 
familiar  objects.  From  such  examples  as  the  above  it  may  be 
gathered  that  much  was  to  be  learned  from  seemingly  negative 
results  as  to  the  child's  knowledge  of  things  at  a  given  period. 
In  fact  the  record  of  what  did  not  interest  him  taught  almost  as 
much  as  the  record  of  what  did. 

The  growth  of  the  ideas  of  size,  distance  and  direction,  and 
his  interpretations  of  pictures  will  be  treated  in  Part  III. 


SECTION  II.— HEARING. 
RECORD  OF  OBSERVATIONS. 

Second  Day. — The  child  ceased  crying  several  times  when 
nis  father  began  to  whistle. 

Fourth  Day. — He  frequently  looked  at  his  father  when 
spoken  to  by  him. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  61 

Seventh  Day. — He  looked  intently  into  the  face  of  a  person 
who  spoke  to  him. 

Seventeenth  Day. — During  this  day  he  was  peculiarly  sensi- 
tive to  sound. 

Twentieth  Day. — He  lay  still  for  fifteen  minutes  while  some- 
one was  singing  to  him. 

Twenty-fourth  Day. — The  effect  of  the  striking  of  the  clock 
was  observed.  Twice  he  stopped  crying  while  it  struck,  and 
once  he  was  aroused  from  a  light  sleep  by  its  gong. 

Thirtieth  Day. — Undoubtedly  he  turned  his  head  in  the 
direction  whence  sounds  proceeded. 

Forty-sixth  Day. — To  talking  and  singing  he  replied  by 
cooing.  At  this  time  and  later  the  effects  were  observed  of 
noises  from  within  and  from  without  the  room.  Those  from 
within  frequently,  though  not  always,  disturbed  him ;  those 
from  without,  though  often  loud,  rarely  aroused  him. 

Seventeenth  Week. — He  evinced  pleasure  in  an  action  song, 
looking  from  the  handsvto  the  face  of  the  singer. 

Eighteenth  Week. — Hearing  the  rain  falling,  he  turned  his 
head  towards  the  open  window  and  lay  quiet  listening.  S  and  sh 
sounds  had  a  soothing  effect. 

Twentieth  Week. — The  slightest  sound  served  to  interrupt 
his  meal,  and  he  looked  in  the  direction  whence  it  came. 

Twenty-second  Week. — In  the  beginning  of  a  journey  the 
child  was  continually  startled  by  the  shrill  whistles  of  the  trains  ; 
but  after  twelve  hours  they  ceased  to  annoy  him,  and  he  even 
became  oblivious  of  the  loud  noise  of  passing  trains.  Sounds 
in  his  sleeping  room  not  loud  enough  to  waken  him,  were  fol- 
lowed by  such  movements  as  rolling  the  head,  lifting  the  hands 
feet  and  legs,  and  by  inarticulate  murmurs.  He  took  pleasure 
in  a  noise  made  by  himself,  but  rendered  articulate  by  the  hand 
of  another  patting  his  mouth. 

Twenty-sixth  Week. — Noises  which  startled  him  when  awake 
no  longer  caused  crying,  but  the  child  displayed  great  curiosity 
as  to  their  source. 

Twenty-seventh  Week. — Localization  of  sounds,  with  the 
exception  of  those  from  behind  the  head,  was  fairly  well  estab- 
lished. 


62  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

Twenty-eighth  Week. — He  recognized  the  tune  of  the  action 
song  which  had  first  given  him  pleasure  in  the  seventeenth  week. 
Thirty-second  Week. — His  father's  imitations  of  the  voices 
of  animals  entertained  the  child  and  made  him  laugh. 

Thirty-third  Week. — The  ringing  of  the  door  bell  in  a  room 
caused  great  astonishment. 

Thirty-eighth  Week. — He  drummed  continually  with  some 
hard  object  upon  the  table  of  his  high  chair. 

Forty-first  Week. — He  began  to  distinguish  among  spoken 
words.  He  enjoyed  screaming,  making  each  successive  scream 
louder  than  the  last,  till  he  jumped  with  the  effort. 

Forty-third  Week. — The  sound  of  a  blow  upon  the  sterilizer 
frightened  the  child ;  but  after  he  had  been  shown  the  sterilizer, 
inside  and  out,  he  no  longer  objected  to  the  noise. 

Forty-eighth  Week. — He  recognized  a  second  tune,  belong- 
ing to  an  action  song. 

Fifty-second  Week. — Any  noise  coming  from  the  direction 
of  the  stairs,  he  associated  with  the  coming  of  his  father. 

Fifty-fifth  Week. — He  understood  a  little  language  and  pos- 
sessed some  words  of  his  own. 

Seventieth  Week. — Words  which  he  merely  imitated,  and 
which  had  no  meaning  for  him,  he  did  not  afterwards  repeat. 

Seventy-second  Week. — He  struck  a  bell  jar  with  a  glass 
stopper.  The  sound  which  resulted  caused  him  to  start  with 
surprise.  He  turned  to  a  scrap  basket  and  struck  that  with  the 
stopper  once,  then  returned  to  the  bell  jar  and  made  it  ring  re- 
peatedly. 

Seventy-fourth  Week. — He  heard  the  tolling  of  the  buoy  bell 
2  y2  miles  out  to  sea,  and  said  *  g'ling,  g'ling,'  a  word  used  to 
indicate  a  bell. 

Seventy-seven  Week. — He  called  out  *  baby '  when  one 
cried  in  another  state-room. 

Ninety-third  Week. — He  sometimes  confused  words  which 
sounded  alike  if  they  were  used  together. 

Ninety-seventh  Week. — When  singing  he  made  a  somewhat 
doleful  noise,  lacking  the  least  semblance  of  a  tune.  At  this 
time  he  easily  recognized  five  tunes,  and  if  they  were  hummed 
for  him,  was  able  to  supply  words  at  the  right  notes. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  63 

One-hundredth  and  fourth  Week. — One  day  the  oven  door 
was  slammed  when  the  child  was  sitting  in  the  kitchen.  He 
began  to  cry,  and  putting  his  hands  upon  the  epigastric  region 
of  his  body  said  that  he  was  hurt. 

HEARING. 

The  first  definite  reactions  to  auditory  sensations  were  ob- 
served on  the  second  day,  during  which  the  child  several  times 
stopped  crying  when  his  father  began  to  whistle.  If  a  loud 
noise  accompanied  by  a  perceptible  jar  had  thus  affected  the 
child,  the  reaction  might  have  been  attributed  to  the  influence  of 
the  vibration  upon  the  body,  as  well  as  to  the  sensation  of  sound. 
Such  a  noise  as  whistling,  however,  could  scarcely  induce  a 
general  bodily  sensation,  so  the  reactions  must  have  occurred  in 
consequence  of  auditory  sensations  experienced  by  the  child  on 
the  second  day. 

Auditory  sensations,  unlike  others,  so  far  as  could  be  ascer- 
tained, depended  directly  upon  the  physical  condition  of  the 
child,  who  unquestionably  had  times  of  extreme  sensibility  to 
the  impressions  of  sound.  An  apparent  insensibility  to  noises  was 
characteristic  of  the  first  month  of  infancy.  During  this  period 
the  child  would  sleep  undisturbed  in  the  family  living  room, 
while  persons  were  conversing  and  moving  about.  And  it  was 
by  variations  in  this  apparent  insensibility  that  much  was 
learned  concerning  his  ability  to  hear.  On  the  third  day  loud 
noises,  such  as  the  slamming  of  a  door,  caused  the  child  to 
start,  or  to  cease  crying ;  but  the  common  sounds  of  the  room 
called  forth  no  reaction.  On  the  fourth  day  he  showed  that  he 
heard  the  human  voice.  On  the  seventeenth  day  the  child  was 
restless,  and,  owing  to  a  slight  indisposition,  unlike  his  usual 
self.  During  the  day  he  did  not  sleep  well,  and  such  noises  as 
a  footfall  or  a  voice  within  the  room  aroused  him.  On  the 
three  succeeding  days  he  was  once  more  quiet  and  oblivious  of 
sounds ;  but  on  the  twenty-first  day,  after  an  attack  of  colic, 
the  child  was  peculiarly  sensitive  to  sounds,  so  that  he  could 
get  but  little  sleep.  Sudden  noises,  whether  loud  or  low,  were  es- 
pecially disturbing  to  him.  On  the  twenty-second  day  he  re- 
turned to  a  condition  of  normal  indifference.  It  was,  however, 


64  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

noteworthy  that  a  slow  but  steady  increase  of  irritability  was 
taking  place,  which  ultimately  landed  him  in  a  condition  of 
normal  irritability,  very  similar  to  the  abnormal  one  which  had 
accompanied  the  early  indispositions.  In  the  sixteenth  week, 
the  child  being  to  all  appearances  in  perfect  health,  the  least 
noise  in  his  sleeping  room  (such  as  the  rustling  of  a  pillow 
case)  aroused  him  from  his  nap.  This  was  not  true  of  his 
night  sleep,  which  was  probably  heavier. 

The  increase  of  sensibility  to  the  influence  of  sound  was 
shown  in  another  way ;  namely,  by  the  effect  of  noises  upon 
the  child  while  eating.  In  the  early  weeks  the  child  devoted 
himself  to  the  task  of  satisfying  his  hunger  regardless  of  what 
went  on  about  him.  He  had  to  learn  to  accommodate  himself 
to  his  supply  of  nutriment  as  well  as  to  other  features  of  his 
surroundings,  and  no  doubt  found  the  task  of  suckling 
thoroughly  engrossing  in  its  pre-automatic  stages.  It  is  there- 
fore not  surprising  that  noises,  if  he  heard  them  while  feeding, 
failed  to  attract  his  attention.  In  the  sixteenth  week  sounds  be- 
gan to  prove  a  real  source  of  distraction,  causing  him  to  pause 
and  to  look  around  many  times  during  his  meal. 

The  possibility  of  becoming  accustomed  to  the  influence  of 
noises  was  noticeable  also.  From  birth  the  child  was  used  to 
the  noises  of  the  street,  which  rarely  disturbed  him.  In  the 
eleventh  week  he  was  taken  to  the  country  where,  during  eleven 
weeks  he  heard  no  noises  similar  to  those  of  the  city.  In  the 
twenty-second  week  he  returned  to  town,  and  when  laid  down 
to  sleep  in  a  room  which  was  not  directly  on  the  street,  it  was 
quite  impossible  for  him  to  rest.  Although  he  was  tired  and 
many  times  composed  himself  to  sleep,  some  passing  vehicle 
invariably  aroused  him.  At  the  end  of  two  days  he  had  become 
somewhat  accustomed  to  the  noises  of  the  street,  and  by  the  tenth 
day  they  no  longer  exerted  a  disturbing  influence.  In  the 
twenty-third  week  hammering  in  the  next  room  did  not  arouse 
him. 

The  acquirement  of  an  insensibility  to  certain  classes  of 
sounds  would  seem  to  have  been  as  important  in  development  as 
the  increase  of  sensibility.  There  was  not,  however,  a  history 
of  growing  indifference  to  the  influence  of  all  sounds.  The 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  65 

striking  of  the  clock,  a  sound  which  arrested  the  child's  atten- 
tion on  the  twenty-fourth  day,  interested  him  repeatedly  dur- 
ing that  part  of  the  two  years  which  he  spent  at  home,  and 
long  after  all  ordinary  noises  of  the  street  had  ceased  to  be  re- 
marked, he  would  pause  to  listen  to  the  striking  of  the  clock. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  sudden  noises  often  startled 
the  child  and  caused  him  to  cry  violently.  This  was  especially 
true  of  noises  which  disturbed  him  while  sleeping  or  eating. 
The  effect  produced  by  sounds  at  such  times  seemed  to  depend, 
not  so  much  upon  quality  and  pitch,  as  upon  abruptness.  Even 
a  low  voice  addressing  the  child  when  he  was  attentively  look- 
ing at  something,  often  caused  him  to  start  violently. 

After  the  ninety-fourth  week  he  evidently  appreciated  the 
rhythm  of  poetry,  for  he  greatly  liked  to  hear  the  Mother  Goose 
melodies.  Dr.  Bolton's  studies  on  rhythm1  suggested  to  me  the 
advisability  of  ascertaining  whether  any  particular  rhymes  were 
more  agreeable  to  the  child  than  others.  I  began  by  repeating 
<  Baby  Bye,  here's  a  Fly, '  etc.  At  first  he  did  not  like  it,  and 
once  he  cried  when,  thinking  to  please  him,  I  began  to  say  it. 
This  was  in  the  eighty-eighth  week.  Some  days  later  he,  of  his 
own  accord,  asked  for  the  rhyme  which  he  had  not  in  the  mean- 
time heard.  Once  in  the  ninety-fourth  week  I  heard  him  re- 
peating it  to  himself.  He  had  the  rhythm  correct,  but  not 
all  of  the  words.  Nonsense  syllables  took  the  places  of  the 
words  omitted.  He  would  not  at  any  time  listen  to  poetry  which 
contained  no  familiar  words.  After  a  few  stanzas  his  interest 
flagged,  and  if  the  poetry  continued  he  became  impatient,  and 
ordered  it  to  be  stopped.  On  the  other  hand,  he  often  sat 
quietly  listening  to  some  simple  rhyme  or  poem  whose  repetition 
he  demanded  from  five  to  fifteen  successive  times.  He  had  some 
favorites  among  the  rhymes  and  jingles,  but  I  could  not  dis- 
cover that  his  choice  of  them  as  such  depended  upon  a 
peculiarity  of  the  rhythm. 

If  he  had  an  appreciation  of  melody  he  never  showed  it* 
He  learned  to  recognize  tunes  without  the  words  of  the  songs 
which  they  accompanied ;  but  he  did  not  care  for  songs  con- 
taining no  familiar  words,  and  in  the  ninety-eighth  week  he 
cared  most  for  those  of  which  he  could  understand  the  most. 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  Vol.  VI.,  No.  2. 


66  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

No  reactions  whatsoever  pointed  to  an  inborn  ability  to 
localize  -sounds,  and  to  judge  of  the  distances  they  traversed. 
Simply  to  look  at  an  object  from  which  a  sound  issued  was 
the  first  step  towards  localization.  This  the  child  did  on  the 
fourth  day,  in  looking  at  a  person  speaking  to  him.  As  the 
localization  of  sound  was  not  established  till  somewhat  after 
the  child  had  formed  the  habit  of  turning  the  eyes  and  head  in 
order  to  see,  a  connection  in  development  may  have  existed  be- 
tween the  two  acquirements.  It  is  certain  that  the  eyes  had 
many  times  followed  noiseless  movement,  and  movement  accom- 
panied by  sound,  before  the  accurate  localization  of  the  direc- 
tion of  sound  was  established.  On  the  twentieth  day  the 
child  turned  his  eyes  twice  to  look  into  the  face  of  a  person  who 
spoke  to  him.  On  the  thirtieth  day  he  began  to  turn  his  head 
in  the  direction  whence  sounds  proceeded.  By  the  eighteenth 
week  he  could  locate  very  well  sounds  coming  from  objects 
within  the  visual  field.  In  the  twenty-sixth  week  he  seldom  cried 
at  sounds  which  startled  him  ;  but  was  curious  as  to  their  source. 
In  the  twenty-seventh  week,  when  he  could  sit,  it  was  found 
that  he  could  not  localize  sounds  which  came  from  behind  him, 
but  looked  for  their  sources  in  front.  This  was  true  especially 
of  sounds  made  near  the  middle  of  the  back  of  the  head.  In 
the  thirtieth  week  he  for  the  first  time  drummed  on  the  upright 
piano,  and  was  surprised  that  the  noise  issued  from  the  piano 
case  instead  of  from  beneath  his  hands.  He  looked  up  at  the 
piano  and  down  at  his  hands  repeatedly. 

Some  experiments  in  playing  *  hide  and  seek '  made  in  the 
forty-eighth  week  showed  how  well  the  ability  to  judge  of  the 
direction  whence  sounds  proceeded  was  established.  Some  one 
hid  while  the  child  was  out  of  the  room.  When  he  crept  in 
she  made  some  low  noise  to  serve  him  as  a  guide.  The  experi- 
ment was  repeated  a  number  of  times,  but  he  invariably  found 
her  without  a  mistake,  wherever  she  was  concealed.  When 
the  voice  came  from  the  closet  he  seemed  puzzled  for  a  moment, 
and  paused  to  look  about  before  starting  and  on  his  way  to- 
wards the  door.  Nevertheless,  he  went  without  deviation  to 
the  right  place. 

He  had  no  perception  of  the  distance  traversed  by  the  sound 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  67 

in  reaching  him.  In  the  eighteenth  week  this  was  well  shown 
in  an  experiment  with  an  organ.  The  child  lay  in  his  bassinet 
eight  or  ten  feet  away  from  the  organ.  A  person  sat  on  a  chair 
between  him  and  the  organ,  yet  not  obstructing  his  view.  Upon 
hearing  the  tones  of  the  organ  he  looked  in  surprise  at  the  per- 
son in  the  chair,  accepting  the  noise  as  from  her.  When  taken 
on  the  lap  of  the  person  playing  he  looked  at  the  organ  in 
astonishment. 

In  the  fifty-fourth  week  in  calling  to  a  dog  at  some  distance 
he  scarcely  raised  his  voice  above  a  whisper.  He  was  over 
two  years  of  age  before  he  recognized  the  fact  that  people  at  a 
distance  could  not  hear  him  unless  he  raised  his  voice.  It  was 
quite  certain  that  ideas  of  distance  and  pitch  were  not  generally 
associated  with  sounds  before  the  close  of  the  second  year.1 

Probably  the  first  sound  recognized  by  the  child — the  first 
one  assimilated  with  past  experiences  of  a  like  nature — was  that 
of  the  human  voice.  By  the  nineteenth  day  the  sound  of  the 
voice  was  distinctly  associated  with  pleasant  experiences,  so 
that  he  smiled  when  addressed. 

On  the  forty-sixth  day  he  began  to  respond  to  sound  by 
sound,  crowing  when  someone  talked  to  him. 

Recognition,  in  the  case  of  the  young  infant,  did  not  neces- 
sarily involve  discrimination,  but  was  rather  a  preliminary  to 
discrimination.  It  did  not  depend  upon  diversity  of  experiences, 
but  upon  repetition  of  them.  The  bases  of  the  first  recognitions 
of  sounds  were  to  be  found  in  some  elements  of  experience 
other  than  sound  itself.  This  was  clearly  shown  in  the  case  of 
footsteps.  After  the  eighteenth  week,  if  the  child  wakened 
crying,  footsteps  on  the  stairs  at  once  quieted  him,  for  these  he 
had  learned  to  associate  with  the  relief  which  followed  the  ap- 
pearance of  his  mother.  In  the  seventeenth  week  he  was  inter- 
ested in  one  of  the  kindergarten  action  songs,  and  looked  re- 
peatedly from  the  face  to  the  moving  fingers  of  the  singer. 
In  the  twenty-eighth  week,  having  heard  this  song  frequently, 
he  recognized  the  tune  alone,  and  amidst  a  medley  of  other 
tunes.  From  the  twenty-second  to  the  twenty-seventh  weeks 

xNor  have  such  ideas  become  elements  in  the  perception  of  sounds  at  2  yrs., 
7  mo. 


68  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

the  child  might  have  heard  trains  passing  at  almost  any  moment 
of  the  day,  yet  the  noise  of  the  shrill  whistle  was  the  only  sound 
of  the  trains  to  which  he  responded.  In  the  twenty- seventh 
week  he  was  taken  on  a  journey,  during  which  he  was  inter- 
ested in  the  passing  trains.  A  few  moments  after  his  return  a 
train  passed  along  the  neighboring  tracks.  He  heard  this  at 
once  and  looked  about  for  it.  Such  cases  might  be  multiplied 
almost  indefinitely ;  but  those  cited  illustrate  sufficiently  the  state- 
ment made  above. 

The  sounds  first  recognized  were  those  which  had  been 
heard  by  the  child  many  times.  Later  his  memory  for  sounds 
developed,  and  he  often  recognized  those  which  were  compara- 
tively new. 

He  became  familiar  with  a  wide  range  of  sounds,  and  could, 
after  the  ninety-eighth  week,  refer  each  instantaneously  and 
correctly  to  its  source.  All  the  noises  of  the  house,  whether 
loud  or  low — footsteps,  coughing,  rustling  garments,  objects 
falling,  fire  crackling,  kettle  boiling,  etc.,  etc. — were  remarked 
upon  by  him ;  and  each  experience  seemed  to  have  for  him  its 
auditory  accompaniment.  The  sounds  of  nature  also  interested 
him  greatly,  from  the  noises  of  insects,  birds  and  beasts,  to  the 
whistling  of  the  wind,  and  so  forth. 

When  his  memory  for  sounds,  was  once  established,  the  child 
often  alluded  to  a  sound  if  the  circumstances  upon  which  the 
recognition  was  based  occurred  without  it.  In  the  forty-third 
week  he  gave  some  evidence  of  an  ability  to  recognize  a  sound 
absolutely.  One  day  his  mother  snapped  her  fingers.  He  lis- 
tened attentively  to  the  noise  produced  thereby.  Then  he 
clicked  with  his  tongue  against  the  hard  palate,  and  the  result 
was  a  sound  almost  exactly  like  the  one  produced  by  the  fingers. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  child  could  discriminate 
nicely  when  able  to  recognize  so  many  sounds.  On  the  contrary, 
he  was  easily  thrown  into  confusion  if  similar  sounds,  which  he 
was  able  to  recognize  singly,  were  used  together.  This  was 
true  especially  of  words  sounding  alike.  The  development  of 
the  ability  to  discriminate  was  noticeable  during  the  acquire- 
ment of  language.  As  a  first  step  towards  discrimination  there 
was  babbling — a  separation  of  the  sounds  of  the  voice  from 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  69 

other  sounds.  Then  a  few  sylables  were  distinguished.  Words 
often  appeared  in  babbling  before  the  child  could  use  any  words 
intelligently,  which  showed  that  certain  combinations  of  sounds 
had  been  singled  out  for  reproduction  from  the  many  which 
greeted  his  ear.  Frequent  repetition  of  such  syllables  occurred 
about  the  forty-second  week.  Many  of  these  were  parts  of 
words  from  the  conversation  of  his  elders  which  did  not  relate 
personally  to  the  child. 

It  was  not  uncommon,  especially  when  he  first  began  to  speak, 
for  him  to  confuse  words  sounding  somewhat  alike.  This  I 
have  spoken  of  under  Language  and  have  there  shown  how  it 
affected  the  acquirement  of  the  correct  pronunciation.  If,  how- 
ever, he  knew  what  the  pronunciation  should  be,  yet  failed  to 
achieve  it,  he  was  quick  to  detect  the  mistake  and  always  paused 
to  correct  himself.  The  perception  of  differences  in  spoken 
words  no  doubt  depended  somewhat  upon  the  movements  and 
positions  taken  by  the  mouth-parts  in  framing  the  sounds ;  he 
was,  however,  often  able  in  the  second  year  to  detect  by  the 
ear  alone  individual  differences  in  the  pronunciation  of  other 
persons. 

Regarding  his  interpretation  of  sounds,  enough  has  been 
said  in  the  discussion  of  recognition  to  show  that  well  nigh  all 
the  sounds  perceived  came  to  be  so  associated  with  experiences 
involving  other  than  auditory  sensations,  that  the  instantaneous 
reference  of  a  sound  heard  to  one  of  these  experiences  was  in- 
evitable. All  early  meanings  attached  to  sounds  were  naturally 
of  a  personal  nature,  and  the  first  sounds  interpreted  were  those 
associated  with  the  comfort  or  discomfort  of  the  child  himself. 

When  his  intelligence  had  moved  beyond  the  stage  of  purely 
personal  reference,  and  he  had  begun  to  be  interested  in  things 
for  themselves,  a  new  and  wider  circle  of  interpretations  was 
formed  (close  of  the  first  year) .  Then  it  was  that  the  child,  while 
rightly  recognizing  sounds,  fell  into  errors  of  interpretation. 
Such  errors  became  more  numerous  with  the  passage  of  time. 
His  accurate  memory  for  past  experiences  led  him  constantly 
to  reconstruct  upon  the  basis  of  a  single  element,  and  to  demand 
repetition  when  there  was  no  liklihood  of  its  occurrence.  One 
example  will  illustrate.  In  the  sixty-eighth  week  a  little  boy  in 


70  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

the  neighborhood  used  a  tin  horn  to  celebrate  the  Fourth  of 
July.  The  sounds  of  the  horn  came  to  us  from  across  the  road 
at  frequent  intervals  for  a  week,  and  the  baby  often  looked  from 
the  window  at  the  little  boy,  who  went  away  at  the  end  of  the 
week.  Three  weeks  later  a  tradesman  announced  himself  by 
means  of  a  similar  horn.  The  child  who  was  playing  on  the 
floor,  looked  towards  the  window  and  called  his  little  playmate. 

It  was  pointed  out  in  the  part  of  this  work  devoted  to  Vision 
thqt  the  observer  had  some  means  of  judging  of  the  relative 
intensities  of  sensations.  It  was  possible  to  learn  more  of  the 
intensities  of  visual  than  of  auditory  impressions.  The  reason 
for  this  is  obvious.  The  vast  majority  of  auditory  sensations  of 
the  little  child  did  not  stand  alone,  but  were  associated  with  ob- 
jects perceived  at  the  same  time  through  the  medium  of  another 
sense  or  senses.  It  was  not  for  themselves  that  the  interest  of 
the  child  was  excited ;  but  rather  in  their  relation  to  objects  did 
they  have  a  value  for  him.  It  was  therefore  difficult  to  isolate 
in  one  of  these  complex  experiences  his  reaction  to  the  auditory 
element  alone.  It  often  happened  that  he  seemed  not  to  hear  a 
sound  which  he  afterwards  recognized  unfalteringly.  Hence 
the  effect  upon  him  of  one  sound  after  another  was  not  so  readily 
to  be  noted  as  the  effect  of  one  visual  sensation  after  another ; 
and  it  was  far  less  apparent  to  the  observer  that  they  did  influ- 
ence him  in  such  varying  degrees. 

The  notes  record  but  few  instances  of  sounds  which,  unac- 
companied by  other  stimuli,  engaged  and  held  attention,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  such  examples  relating  to  vision ;  and 
they  give  but  comparatively  few  cases  in  which  sounds  induced 
the  reactions  attendant  upon  excitement.  But  the  early  audi- 
tory sensations  were  often  the  means  by  which  intensely  un- 
pleasant feelings  were  produced.  There  is  certainly  no  ex- 
ample recorded  in  which  a  purely  visual  sensation  was  unpleas- 
ant enough  to  cause  crying.  Even  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun 
upon  the  eye  did  not  do  that ;  and  the  necessity  of  focusing  the 
eyes  upon  the  object,  together  with  various  protective  adjust- 
ments, of  iris,  lids,  etc.,  excluded  the  possibility  of  shock,  from 
which  the  discomforts  of  hearing  resulted. 

On  the  nineteenth  day  he  began  to  smile  when  spoken  to, 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  71 

and  the  sound  of  the  voice  in  singing  and  speaking  afforded 
him  pleasure.  In  the  eighteenth  week  the  tones  of  the  parlor 
organ,  and  the  whistling  of  the  wind  induced  pleasurable  excite- 
ment. In  the  thirteenth  week  he  evidently  derived  pleasure  from 
noises  made  by  his  own  voice.  In  the  thirty-eighth  week 
and  later,  noises  made  by  himself  in  hammering  and  screaming, 
however  discordant  and  loud,  did  not  annoy  him.  These  noises 
were  tolerated  or  enjoyed,  not  only  because  they  were  associated 
with  his  own  activity,  for  it  was  clearly  shown  in  other  cases, 
that  such  loud  discordant  sounds  did  not  affect  him  unpleasantly. 
One  day  towards  the  close  of  the  second  year  he  went  under  a 
bridge  over  which  a  heavy  freight  train  was  passing  with  tre- 
mendous clatter  and  vibration.  It  did  not  seem  to  affect  the 
child  unpleasantly.  On  the  ensuing  day,  as  he  passed  be- 
neath the  same  bridge,  he  bewailed  the  absence  of  the  train. 
In  the  fifty-first  week  he  began  to  cry  when  for  the  first  time 
he  heard  muslin  torn,  but  laughed  when  the  noise  was  repeated. 
Something  has  been  written  above  of  his  susceptibility  to  the 
qualities  of  auditory  sensation.  It  remains  for  me  to  record  the 
influence  upon  him  of  a  few  sounds  of  fixed  quality.  On  the 
twenty-fourth  day  the  striking  of  the  clock  began  to  affect 
him.  On  the  same  day,  when  someone  chirped  to  him,  he 
started  violently.  On  the  forty-sixth  day  the  sound  of  rat- 
tling spoons  interested  him.  It  was  observed  from  the  sixty- 
first  day  that  the  voice  of  his  father  had  a  more  subduing 
effect  than  the  voice  of  his  mother.  In  the  fifty-ninth  week 
the  music  of  a  street  band  of  wind  instruments  afforded  him 
evident  enjoyment.  The  ear  of  the  child  would  appear  to 
have  been  sensitive  to  a  wide  range  of  auditory  sensations ;  but 
the  principle  which  governed  the  increase  of  the  range  of  sensi- 
bility to  visual  sensations,  was  active  in  extending  the  range  of 
sensibility  to  auditory  ;  namely,  the  development  of  perceptions- 
which  took  place  as  a  consequence  of  the  direction  of  attention 
to  sounds.  The  stages  of  the  development  of  hearing  may  be 
described  briefly  as  follows  : 

1.  Sensation. 

2.  Recognition  and  distinction. 

3.  Discrimination. 


7 2  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

Interpretations  occurred   along  with  recognitions   and  dis- 
criminations. 


SECTION  III.— TOUCH. 

If  in  the  foregoing  discussions  of  sensations  I  have  made 
one  generalization  clear,  it  is  now  understood  that  any  sensation 
which  had  an  observable  effect  upon  the  child  was  followed  by 
some  form  of  motor  reaction.  It  has  also  been  shown  that  the 
forms  which  should  be  assumed  by  reactions  differed  in  qual- 
ity according  to  the  sense  stimulated.  The  reactions  which 
were  associated  with  sensations  of  the  skin  consisted  of  move- 
ments of  the  body  as  a  whole,  or  of  its  members,  and  in 
the  most  primitive  stage  of  reactions  these  were  further  the 
movements  of  the  parts  which  lay  near,  or  were  closely  con- 
nected with  the  portion  of  the  surface  stimulated ;  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  a  twitching  of  the  muscle  beneath  an  area  of  skin 
subjected  to  tickling  (nineteenth  week),  and  licking  in  response 
to  the  feeling  of  milk  flowing  over  the  lips  (third  day) .  Some 
touch  movements  belonged  to  the  class  earlier  described  as  in- 
stinctive, others  to  that  of  reflexes.  By  means  of  such  reac- 
tions one  of  two  possible  ends  was  accomplished,  either  the 
body  (or  some  portion  thereof)  was  withdrawn  from  an  unpleas- 
ant contact,  or  it  was  brought  into  closer  union  with  a  pleasant 
one.  When  voluntary  movements  had  become  possible  the 
members  could  be  brought  into  contacts  not  actually  present  to 
the  skin,  but  thought  of,  or  suggested  by  some  one  of  the  train 
of  circumstances  in  which  the  contact  was  first  felt  as  agreeable. 
There  were  then  two  distinct  forms  of  action  which  figured  as 
reactions  to  sensations  of  contact ;  namely,  the  inherent  and  the 
voluntary.  Reactions  of  the  first  kind,  by  inducing  changes  in 
consciousness,  made  the  child  aware  of  those  gross  areas  of  his 
body  which  responded  in  a  fixed  way  to  definite  qualities  and 
quantities  of  stimulation.  If  we  bear  in  mind  the  great  number 
of  inherent  reactions,  their  distribution  to  nearly  all  parts  of  the 
body,  and  that  each  was  called  forth  by  the  stimulation  of  a  defi- 
nite portion  of  the  skin,  and,  except  in  rare  cases,  by  the  stimu- 
lation of  no  other  area,  the  method  by  which  the  child  came  to 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD. 


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MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  77 

know  those  areas  of  his  body  which  were,  so  to  say,  mapped 
out  by  sensations  and  movements,  becomes  clear  to  us.  But 
from  the  repetition  of  the  inherent  reactions  he  could  learn 
nothing  further  than  this.  In  the  attempt,  however,  to  repro- 
duce the  movement  and  to  regain  a  contact,  there  entered  the 
element  through  whose  agency  the  adjustments  and  distinctions 
were  developed  which  were  essential  to  progress. 

There  are  three  ways  in  which  the  reproduced  movements 
affected  development : 

ist.  By  recurring  at  the  suggestion  of  similar  and  practi- 
cally identical  circumstances  they  brought  about  a  result  practi- 
cally identical  with  the  original  one.  Older  experiences  were 
thus  defined  and  older  impressions  renewed  and  intensified. 

2nd.  By  recurring  at  the  suggestion  of  similar,  but  not  identi- 
cal circumstances  they  produced  a  result  which  varied  some- 
what from  the  original  one,  and  in  which  new  sensations  of  con- 
tact were  given  and  new  adjustments  obtained. 

3rd.  By  recurring  at  the  suggestion  of  similar  circumstances 
they  produced  a  result  entirely  unlike  the  original  one,  in  which 
material  for  contrast  was  furnished.  In  early  infancy,  the 
child  could  not  use  such  material,  hence  totally  dissimilar  ex- 
periences entered  but  little  into  the  woof  of  the  mental  fabric 
during  some  six  months. 

The  reactions  which  have  been  described  as  instinctive 
actions  and  reflexes l  showed  that  localization  of  sensation 
to  certain  areas  of  the  skin  existed  soon  after  birth.  This 
localization  must  not  be  mistaken  for  a  conscious  apprecia- 
tion of  the  parts  stimulated.  The  fact  that  the  child  was  able  to 
remember  and  to  reproduce  an  action  upon  the  recurrence  of 
the  conditions  which  had  first  induced  it,  showed  that  a  sensa- 
tion had  been  consciously  felt.  There  was,  however,  absolutely 
no  evidence  of  the  ability  to  locate  such  a  sensation  in  a  part 
of  the  body  which  he  recognized;  but  the  evidence  showed 
sensations  in  general  to  be  experienced  and  confused.  The 
slow  and  laborious  process  was  apparent  by  which  the  men- 
tal separation  and  differentiation  of  the  bodily  parts  and  sur- 
faces were  developed.  The  steps  by  which  one  portion  after 

1  Part  I,  Movements. 


7  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

another  of  the  surfaces  of  the  members  was  separated  from  its 
surroundings,  and  used  through  the  agency  of  movement  to  ob- 
tain sensations,  were  recorded  and  have  been  spoken  of  under 
Movements.1 

Therefore,  whether  we  agree  with  those  writers  who  claim 
that  the  so-called  local  signs  depend  upon  some  quality  of  the 
end  organs  themselves,  or  with  those  who  believe  them  to  be  as- 
sociated movement  elements,  or  with  those  who  find  in  the  vary- 
ing thicknesses  of  epithelial  layers,  or  in  muscle  tensions, 
or  in  the  number  of  end  organs  excited,  sufficient  explanation 
of  their  existence,  it  must  be  admitted  in  the  present  case, 
that  they  were  not  inherent  or  primitive ;  and  that  they  were 
mental,  the  results  of  syntheses  of  sensations ;  and  that  the 
sensations  out  of  which  these  syntheses  were  constructed 
were  primarily  of  two  kinds,  pressure  and  movement.  It  is  a 
question  whether  movement  sensations  alone  were  sufficient 
to  give  a  local  coloring  to  dermal  sensations.  Considering 
only  the  sensations  of  the  skin  proper,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  movement  element  was  the  one  essential  to  the  de- 
velopment of  localization.  It  may,  however,  be  argued,  that 
if  the  slow  differentiation  and  mental  gaining  of  part  by 
part  were  pursued  as  described  above,  years  instead  of  weeks 
would  have  been  required  in  development.  But  it  was  the  first 
steps,  and  the  first  syntheses  which  required  time  for  their  com- 
pletion, and  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  law,  that  neither  the  time 
nor  the  experience  was  necessary  for  a  succeeding  related  syn- 
thesis which  had  been  required  in  obtaining  the  elements  out  of 
which  its  predecessor  had  been  constructed.2 

Pressure  caused  by  a  hand  resting  upon  his  body  was  sooth- 
ing to  the  child  from  birth.  The  gentle  patting  of  the  back  had 
a  soothing  effect  also.  He  was  at  first  the  passive  recipient  of 
pressure  stimuli.  By  the  sixth  day  his  open  hands  often  rested 
upon  surfaces  of  various  kinds,  and  thereafter  he  slowly  acquired 
the  habit  of  feeling  objects — or,  rather  be  it  said,  the  surfaces  of 

1  Movements,  pp.  21-23. 

2  For  illustration  consult  Hand  and  Arm  Movements,  comparing  the  acquire- 
ments of  the  first  twenty-seven  weeks  with  those  of  the  nineteen  weeks  follow- 
ing ;  also  Observations  on  the  Development  of  Visual  Perceptions  of  the  first 
sixty  days  with  the  period  included  by  the  nineteenth  and  twenty-seventh  weeks. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  79 

objects — till  by  the  time  grasping  was  possible  to  him  (twelfth 
week),  he  had  experienced  many  touch-sensations. 

Sensations  of  touch  were  obtained  not  only  from  the  surfaces 
of  the  hands,  but  from  the  lips,  tongue,  soles  of  the  feet  and 
toes.  Indeed  the  lips  and  the  tongue  were  the  first  organs  of 
active  touch,  the  hands  were  next  used,  and  lastly  the  feet.  In 
the  twenty-seventh  week  he  used  all  three  sets  of  organs,  grasp- 
ing an  object  in  the  hands,  feeling  it  with  the  soles  and  toes, 
then  putting  it  up  to  his  mouth.  Long  after  he  had  ceased  to 
use  his  feet  for  touch,  the  lips  still  supplemented  the  hand. 

It  may  be  stated  in  a  general  way  that  his  sensibility  to  im- 
pressions of  contact  increased  with  the  development  of  active 
touch.  Prior  to  the  sixteenth  week  he  was  content  to  suck  his 
own  thumb  when  hungry,  the  feeling  of  milk  in  the  mouth  was, 
therefore,  not  an  essential  element  in  the  feeding-complex.  But 
in  the  thirty-eighth  week  it  undoubtedly  was ;  for  he  then  at 
once  spat  out  the  thickened  cream  of  sterilized  milk. 

In  the  twenty-ninth  week  he  perceived  the  presence  of  salt  or 
sugar  in  the  mouth,  acting  as  one  does  who  finds  his  mouth 
filled  with  sand.  His  first  objections  to  solid  food  were  evi- 
dently founded  upon  the  novel  touch  sensations  which  it  aroused 
in  the  mouth. 

In  the  eleventh  week  the  hands  distinguished  between  flan- 
nel and  muslin. 

In  the  fourteenth  week,  when  rubbing  his  hands  over  a 
face,  he  encountered  a  handful  of  hair,  and  was  surprised 
thereby. 

After  this  the  sensations  of  the  skin  of  the  hands  became  so 
closely  associated  with  movements  that,  having  made  no  ex- 
periments upon  skin  sensation  only,  I  cannot  separate  the  de- 
velopment of  the  one  from  that  of  the  other. 

In  the  nineteenth  week  flies  walking  on  the  face  of  the 
child  caused  his  muscles  to  twitch ;  but  when  on  the  hands  they 
seemed  not  to  annoy  him. 

In  the  twenty-seventh  week  flies  on  his  face  became  unpleas- 
ant to  him,  and  caused  him  to  waken  if  they  crawled  upon  him 
during  sleep.  Beyond  this  I  do  not  know  whether  he  was  sen- 
sitive to  tickling  or  not. 


8o  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

From  birth  he  objected  to  a  wet  or  soiled  diaper.  It  seems 
probable,  since  a  bath  of  proper  temperature  was  agreea- 
ble to  him,  that  the  warmth  suddenly  suffused  over  a  considera- 
ble area  of  the  skin  was  the  cause  of  his  displeasure.  About 
the  thirty-ninth  day  it  was  observed  that  he  frequently  cried 
when  returned  to  the  bassinet  at  night  after  having  been  taken 
out  to  receive  the  necessary  attentions.  If  a  hot  water  bag  was 
laid  in  the  child's  place  during  his  absence,  and  he  was  then 
laid  upon  the  spot  so  warmed,  he  never  cried,  but  at  once  went 
to  sleep.  The  temperature  of  the  sleeping  room  did  not  not  at 
this  time  fall  below  66°F. 

In  the  sixty-sixth  week  he  frequently  stepped  barefooted 
from  the  warm  sand  of  the  beach  to  the  cool  water  of  Vineyard 
Sound,  without  seeming  to  notice  a  difference  in  temperature. 
In  the  eighty-second  week  he  liked  to  hold  his  head  under  the 
spigot,  and  it  was  apparently  a  matter  of  indifference  to  him 
whether  warm  or  cold  water  flowed  therefrom  over  his  head 
and  face.  He  liked  to  be  washed  in  cold  water  less  than  in 
warm. 

In  the  one-hundredth  week  he  objected  to  the  introduction 
into  his  arm  pit  of  the  bulb  of  a  thermometer.  This  objection 
may  not  have  been  based  entirely  upon  the  temperature  of  the 
bulb. 

In  the  early  weeks  the  child  gave  no  evidence  of  an  ability 
to  localize  pain.  Indeed,  he  did  not  localize  pain  till  he  was 
able  to  localize  other  dermal  sensations.  This  was  in  part  due 
to  the  imperfect  use  of  his  hands,  for  he  could  not  have  been 
expected  to  place  the  hand  upon  an  injured  part  before  he  was 
able  to  place  it  voluntarily  upon  an  object. 

This  peculiarity  of  the  growth  of  the  ability  to  localize 
sensations  of  pain  would  seem  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  ex- 
planation which  considers  the  localization  of  pain  to  be  depend- 
ent upon  the  localization  of  touch  sensations,  and  the  result  of 
the  association  of  sensations  of  pain  with  those  of  contact.  A 
further  proof  of  the  correctness  of  such  a  view  was  found  in 
the  manner  of  localizing  internal  sensations  of  pain,  which  he 
referred  to  some  portion  of  the  surface  of  the  body  near  the  in- 
ternal part  from  which  the  disturbance  originated.  Distress  in 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  81 

the  throat  he  localized  on  the  neck,  and  pain  in  the  bowels  in 
the  naval. 

By  the  fifty-second  week  he  was  able  to  locate  pain  on  the 
surface  of  his  body  with  considerable  accuracy.  During  the 
first  year  he  displayed  the  comparative  insensibility  to  pain 
which  is  said  to  be  characteristic  of  early  childhood.  On  the 
twenty-first  day  he  suffered  not  a  little  from  an  attack  of  colic. 
In  the  eleventh  week,  however,  he  had  as  the  result  of  vaccina- 
tion, a  very  sore  arm,  which  seemed  to  give  him  little  or  no  dis- 
comfort. He  often  knocked  his  head  against  that  of  a  person 
holding  him  with  force  enough  to  hurt  the  adult,  yet  he  ap- 
parently felt  no  pain.  In  the  sixteenth  week  he  struck  his  nose 
in  this  manner,  and  surprise  at  the  result  was  after  an  interval 
succeeded  by  crying.  During  the  fifth  and  sixth  months  he 
kicked  the  bassinet  repeatedly  with  force  enough  to  hurt  the 
soles  of  bare  feet,  yet  it  was  doubtful  whether  he  was  ever  hurt. 

In  the  twenty-ninth  week,  when  trying  to  get  on  his  hands 
and  knees  he  bumped  his  head  and  nose  severely ;  but  this  did 
not  deter  him  from  persisting  in  his  efforts  to  creep.  Nor  did 
hurts  long  cause  discomfort,  even  though  the  bruises  and  cuts 
in  which  they  originated  remained.  Upon  several  occasions 
during  the  second  year  the  child  fell  while  running  and  cut  his 
upper  lip  badly,  so  that  it  bled  profusely,  and  afterwards 
swelled  and  looked  extremely  sore,  yet  after  the  first  outcry  he 
never  referred  to  it.  Quick  sharp  blows,  cuts,  and  the  one  in- 
significant burn  which  he  received  did  hurt  him.  In  the 
eighteenth  week  he  cried  long  and  loud  when  scratched  on  the 
leg  by  a  pin  point.  About  the  thirty-fourth  week  he  sometimes 
scratched  his  scalp  with  his  own  finger  nails,  breaking  the  skin, 
which  caused  him  to  cry. 

It  was  always  possible  to  destroy  the  effect  of  an  ordinary 
bruise  by  distracting  his  attention  from  it ;  and  later  by  sug- 
gestion. To  have  the  hurt  kissed  was  more  efficacious  as  a 
cure  than  to  have  some  medicinal  remedy  applied. 

It  was  a  difficult  matter  to  judge  of  the  comparative  intensi- 
ties of  sensations  of  touch.  The  occurrence  of  movements 
along  with  contact  presented  a  difficulty  which  it  was  hard  to 
get  over  without  assistance  from  experiment.  Then  too  the  em- 


82  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

ployment  of  sight  in  addition  to  touch  began  to  add  complica- 
tions at  an  early  date. 

The  recognition  of  sensations  of  touch  was  not  as  a  rule 
based  upon  the  association  of  touch  with  touch  sensations ;  but 
upon  the  association  of  touch  with  movement  or  vision.  The 
eye  saw  many  objects  in  proportion  to  a  few  felt  by  the  hand. 

The  eye  might  rest  upon  a  pleasing  thing,  return  to  it,  become 
familiar  with  it,  inculcate  its  aspects  into  experience ;  for 
months  the  hand  felt  only  what  came  or  was  given  to  it,  so  that 
the  most  pleasing  of  sensations  might  have  been  forgotten  be- 
fore it  could  be  repeated.  Hence  the  development  of  the  per- 
ception of  objects  of  sight  was  considerably  in  advance  of  the 
development  of  the  perception  of  objects  of  touch,  which  began 
to  assume  noteworthy  proportions  only  after  the  child  could  see 
(carry  into  his  visual  field)  that  which  he  handled. 

SECTION  III.— TASTE  AND  SMELL. 

The  records  which  I  gathered  upon  the  sensations  of  taste 
and  smell  were  very  meagre.  I  was  unwilling  to  experiment 
upon  the  sense  of  taste,  since  substances  introduced  into  the 
mouth  must  inevitably  have  found  their  way,  as  a  whole  or  in 
part,  to  the  stomach,  whose  normal  processes  might  thus  have 
suffered  disturbance.  From  the  first,  water  was  given  to  the 
child  daily ;  this  he  seemed  to  enjoy. 

On  the  twenty-first  day  some  soda  mint  in  hot  water  was  ad- 
ministered. He  swallowed  it,  as  he  did  water,  giving  no  evi- 
dence of  having  experienced  a  different  flavor.  Thereafter  un- 
til the  twenty-ninth  week  milk  and  water  were  the  only  food 
substances  which  passed  his  lips.  In  the  thirty-sixth  week  he 
received  his  first  meal  of  artificial  food,  consisting  of  sterilized 
cow's  milk  slightly  sweetened  with  cane  sugar,  and  this  he 
seemed  to  like. 

In  the  thirty-eighth  week  his  objection  to  solid  food  in  the 
form  of  sugar,  and  thickened  cream  from  the  sterilized  milk,  was 
very  strong. 

In  the  forty-sixth  week  he  refused  bread  and  milk,  probably 
because  it  too  was  solid,  but  was  extremely  fond  of  cow's  milk 
alone.  In  the  forty-seventh  week  he  learned  to  suck  a  crust 


MENTAL    DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  83 

of  bread,  and  doubtless  in  this  way  got  its  flavor.  Thereafter 
he  liked  bread  greatly  and  soon  learned  to  swallow  it. 

In  the  fiftieth  week  he  was  given  in  water  some  medicine 
having  a  saline  taste,  which  he  liked.  In  the  fifty-second  week 
he  was  given  some  of  the  juice  of  an  orange,  which  he  liked  at 
once,  and  of  which  he  soon  became  exceedingly  fond.  In  the 
fifty-eighth  week  he  objected  to  a  bitter  medicine,  even  when 
sweetened  and  mixed  with  orange  juice.  In  the  sixty-fourth 
week  he  ate  crackers  and  grew  to  like  them  very  much.  He  ate 
also  a  little  potato,  bread  and  butter,  broths,  custards  and  boiled 
egg,  each  of  which  he  seemed  to  like  when  first  given  to  him, 
but  no  one  of  which  tempted  him  when  it  appeared  a  second 
time.  Indeed  he  often  refused  a  food  which  had  at  first  seemed 
agreeable  to  him.  It  would  seem  that  the  different  flavors  were 
not  severally  disagreeable  to  him,  but  they  were  not  sufficiently 
pleasing  to  create  a  desire  for  the  articles  to  which  they  be- 
longed. 

By  the  seventy-sixth  week  he  liked  salt  greatly,  and  would 
have  eaten  it  by  the  spoonful ;  sugar  he  refused  to  eat,  but  he 
liked  to  play  with  it.  Throughout  the  second  year  he  con- 
tinued to  like  juice  of  oranges,  grape  fruits  or  lemons  (the  last 
in  lemon  jelly),  also  apples  and  grapes.  He  did  not  care  for 
sweets,1  but  continued  to  demand  salt.  Milk,  bread  and  butter, 
and  fruits  constituted  the  staple  articles  of  his  diet;  other  plain 
foods  he  sometimes  took  and  sometimes  refused. 

From  the  above  scattered  records  it  may  be  learned  that  cer- 
tain simple  tastes  were  pleasing  to  the  child  in  themselves,  and 
at  least  one,  bitter,  was  disagreeable  to  him ;  but  that  the  flavors 
of  the  mixed  foods  were  responded  to  with  indifference. 

SMELL. 

During  two  years  the  child  gave  no  evidence  of  a  great  sensi- 
bility to  the  influence  of  odors.  But  by  the  end  of  the  first 
month  the  odor  of  milk  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  signs  by 
which  he  recognized  the  near  presence  of  his  mother.  From 
the  second  month  until  complete  weaning  had  been  accom- 

JIn  the  third  year  he  liked  pure  cane  sugar  and  maple  sugar. 


84  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

plished  proximity  to  his  mother  suggested  feeding.  Early  in 
the  third  month  the  experiment  was  made  of  holding  close  to 
the  child  a  cloth  moistened  with  milk.  He  began  at  once  to  act 
as  if  hungry.  The  experiment  was  so  arranged  that  smell 
must  have  been  the  only  sense  to  which  an  appeal  was  made. 
If  sweetly  scented  flowers  were  held  close  to  his  nostrils  during 
the  fourth  month  and  later,  his  face  often  wore  an  attentive  ex- 
pression. Of  course  he  never  inhaled  the  perfume  as  adults 
do,  and  it  is  not  even  certain  that  he  perceived  it. 

In  the  eighty-sixth  week  he  began  to  ask  to  have  flowers 
given  him  to  smell,  and  leaves  also.  When  his  mother's  hand, 
wet  with  coal  oil  was  offered  to  him  to  smell,  he  smelled  it  and 
seemed  pleased,  wanting  to  repeat  the  performance  many  times. 
He  also  insisted  upon  smelling  the  cosmoline  as  soon  as  the 
bottle  appeared. 

In  the  twenty-third  month  he  opened  an  old  box  in  which 
some  rose  perfume  yet  lingered.  This  he  at  once  perceived. 
It  would  seem  that  odors  had  not  for  him  the  distinctness  and 
individuality  which  they  have  for  older  people.  He  did  not 
learn  to  inhale  properly,  therefore,  it  is  probable  that  he  did  not 
experience  to  the  fullest,  the  sensations  of  smell. 


PART  III.— IDEAS. 


SECTION  L— MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

In  the  parts  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  movements  and 
sensations,  evidence  has  been  brought  forward  to  show  how 
these  are  the  forerunners  of  all  mental  development.  But  sen- 
sations and  reactions  alone  are  not  sufficient  to  account  for  men- 
tal progress.  A  great  expanse  existed  between  any  sensation,  or 
group  of  sensations,  and  an  idea.  What  united  the  ends  of 
such  a  series?  By  what  processes  was  an  idea  built  up  from 
one,  or  from  many  sensations? 

Sensations  and  reactions  heaped  one  upon  another  never 
could  have  developed  an  idea.  The  processes  by  which  ideas 
were  built  up  were  after  all  not  so  many,  nor  so  complicated, 
as  we  are  accustomed  to  suppose.  It  is  not  too  great  a  claim,  as 
a  result  of  these  observations,  to  maintain  that  idea  formation 
rested  upon  a  few  simple  processes,  easily  recognized  and  lead- 
ing to  a  progressive  series  of  planes  of  mental  development. 

Sensations  and  reactions  furnished  the  materials  of  all  ideas, 
providing  an  immense  number  and  variety  of  elements.  Some 
of  these  elements  were  gathered  around  limited  sets  of  experi- 
ences. Whenever  this  was  the  case,  associative  links  were 
formed  uniting  sensations,  movements  and  experiences  into 
fixed  connections.  The  formation  of  such  associative  links  was 
a  first  step  towards  mental  development.  The  earliest  manifes- 
tations of  memory  were  given  in  such  associated  connections. 
During  the  first  months  of  life  I  saw  no  evidence  of  memory 
except  as  presented  in  series  of  associations  whose  recall  was 
initiated  by  suggestions. 

The  memory  of  the  young  child  may  be  said  to  have  shown 
tself  in  the  ability  to  record.  In  a  last  analysis  memory  coin- 
cides with  habit,  memory  being  the  making  of  a  record  of  what 
had  been  experienced ;  habit,  the  tendency  to  act  again  as  he 

85 


86  KATHLEEN  CARTER   MOORE. 

had  acted  before  under  similar  circumstances.  Both  rested 
ultimately  upon  a  common  foundation  and  found  no  differen- 
tiation in  the  young  infant ;  for,  given  the  recurring  conditions 
as  a  suggestion,  and  there  was  in  either  case  recall  and  action.1 
If  we  arbitrarily  separate  the  association  series  from  the  action 
series,  we  shall  find  in  the  former  the  first  expression  of  an  in- 
dividual memory ;  but  in  making  such  a  division  we  must  not 
for  a  moment  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  no  such  severance 
actually  occurred. 

The  chief  factor  in  the  development  of  apperception  and  in 
the  organization  of  apperception  masses  was  found  to  be  the 
qualitative  connection  of  experiences.  When  examining  into 
the  development  of  the  perception  of  things  seen  and  heard  I 
have,  in  a  measure,  forestalled  and  outlined  this  position  in  re- 
gard to  apperception.  I  have  there  pointed  out  that  every  vari- 
ety and  combination  of  sensation  was  not,  at  a  given  time,  pos- 
sible to  the  child ;  but  that  the  sensations  which  he  might  then 
experience  were  dependent  upon  the  stage  of  development  of 
the  sensory  apparatus,  the  use  made  of  previous  experiences, 
and  the  power  of  the  stimulus  to  engage  attention.  I  have 
shown  that  a  sensation  utterly  disparate  from  all  perceptions 
previously  obtained,  did  not  receive  the  share  of  attention  which 
was  necessary  in  order  to  impress  its  effects  upon  the  mental 
organization.  No  experience  took  its  place  in  the  mental  life 
of  the  child  which  did  not  fall  into  the  line  of  connections  by 
which  past  and  necessarily  somewhat  similar  experiences  were 
united. 

Apperception  was  the  assimilation  in  continuity  of  the  new 
and  similar  in  experience  with  the  old  ;  and  apperceptive  masses 
were  the  associated  groups  of  experiences.  The  paths  along 
which  apperception  might  be  effective,  and  the  limits  within 
which  apperception  masses  might  accumulate,  were  fixed  by 
the  laws  of  sensation  and  movement,  and  by  the  order  and  suc- 
cession in  which  the  sensory  apparatus  became  instrumental  as 
a  means  for  the  acquirement  of  perceptions.  If  the  reader  will 
recall  that  portion  of  the  introduction  which  told  of  the  periods 

1  For  illustration  consult  Movements,  pp.  17  and  18,  ist  to  49th  days. 

2  See  Sensation,  pp.  58-60. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  87 

of  development  and  activity  within  the  various  territories  of  sen- 
sation1, he  will  be  aided  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  mean- 
ing of  these  statements.  He  is  also  referred  to  Touch,  p.  82, 
where  it  was  shown  in  part  why  sight  succeeded  in  attaining  to 
a  higher  plane  of  development  than  touch  during  the  first  of  the 
periods  described. 

One  more  reference  to  facts  already  established  will  make 
clear  how  close  we  stand  to  the  central  point  from  which  lines 
of  mental  development  diverge.  In  treating  of  vision2  I  have 
endeavored  to  explain  the  method  by  which  the  range  of  percep- 
tion became  increased.  If  the  reader  will  now  refer  to  the 
statements  there  made,  the  close  relationship  of  perception  and 
apperception  will  become  apparent. 

When  the  simplest  memory  is  regarded  as  the  retention  of 
the  impressions  of  experience ;  when  personal  memory  is  seen 
to  be  the  retention  of  definite  and  interrelated  series  of  experi- 
ences ;  when  habit  is  found  to  be  the  tendency  to  repeat  an  act 
upon  the  recurrence  of  conditions  which  suggest  it ;  when  per- 
ception is  admitted  to  be  the  reference  of  sensations  before  ex- 
perienced to  stimuli  whose  effects  have  been  felt  before ;  when 
apperception  is  found  to  be  the  assimilation  of  new  material 
with  what  has  been  obtained  through  experiences  in  the  past ; 
when  memories,  habits,  perceptions  and  apperceptions  are  un- 
derstood to  rest  upon  sensations  and  movements,  and  upon  the 
ability  to  establish  connections  among  the  mental  representa- 
tives of  the  same,  we  find  ourselves  on  a  vantage  ground  of 
comparatively  simple  manifestations  from  which  to  view  the 
paths  of  departure  that  lead  to  the  so-called  faculties  of  the 
mind. 

One  question  has  doubtless  presented  itself  to  the  reader  as 
a  stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  the  acceptance  of  the  above 
analytic  simplification.  The  part  played  by  attention  in  the 
scheme  of  development  has  been  everywhere  noted,  in  particu- 
lar receiving  consideration  under  vision.  What  is  attention, 
and  among  what  class  of  activities  does  it  belong?  Attention  is 
to  be  regarded  as  an  adjustment  to  the  influence  of  the  stimu- 

1  Introduction,  pp.  4-6. 

2  Sensations,  pp.  58-59. 


88  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

v 

lus  ;*  thus  it  is  cast  into  the  class  of  inherent  reactions.  It  dif- 
fered from  the  inherent  reactions  of  the  special  senses  in  this, 
that  under  the  necessary  conditions  it  could  be  called  forth  by 
the  stimulations  of  any  sense.  In  common  with  other  inherent 
reactions  the  course  of  its  development  was  towards  its  final 
(but  not  complete)  subjection  to  voluntary  control. 

It  is  often  stated  that  the  ability  to  attend  increases  with  age, 
and  that  the  little  child  is  quite  unable  to  settle  himself  to  the 
contemplation  of  one  thing  for  any  length  of  time.  I  do  not 
know  how  true  this  may  be  of  children  in  general.  I  am  pre- 
pared to  deny  the  truth  of  such  a  statement  in  the  case  under 
consideration.  No  doubt  the  ability  to  attend  voluntarily  does 
increase  with  age — of  this  I  cannot  as  yet  speak — but  the  power 
to  attend  involuntarily  was  established  immediately  after  birth, 
and  was  manifested  whenever  the  sensory  apparatus  was  em- 
ployed. 

An  older  child  could  not  do  more  to  evince  attention  than  to 
lie  gazing  at  a  patch  of  light  or  a  moving  object  during  a  period 
varing  from  fifteen  to  thirty  minutes.  As  he  became  older  the 
same  things  did  not  interest  the  child  in  the  same  way.  After 
touch  had  been  developed  through  handling,  he  often  occupied 
himself  for  an  hour  or  more  with  a  single  object.  In  such 
cases  a  factor  entered  which  was  not  found  with  the  earlier  sen- 
sations ;  namely,  the  continual  changes  which  the  child  him- 
self induced  in  the  object,  as  a  result  of  which  he  perceived  it 
in  new  situations  which  were  in  truth  like  so  many  changes  in 
stimuli,  each  requiring  a  fresh  adjustment  of  the  attention. 
Hence  the  infant  when  older  amused  himself  for  a  longer 
period  and  seemed  to  attend  for  a  longer  time.  It  is  true,  the 
attention  of  the  child  daily  became  subject  to  a  greater  number 
and  variety  of  diversions  as  he  became,  through  his  developed 
perceptions,  sensitive  to  a  wider  range  of  influences  which  he 
was  not  able,  nor  did  he  will,  to  shut  out.  This  fact  alone 
might  lead  to  the  assumption  that  his  attention  could  not,  under 
any  circumstances,  remain  fixed  for  more  than  a  few  moments 
— an  assumption  not  borne  out  by  the  full  evidence. 

1  As  such  it  is  regarded  by  Wm.  James,  Psychology,  Vol.  I.,  Chap,  on  At- 
tention. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  89 

Concerning  the  emotional  factors  determining  the  mental 
survival  of  experiences,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  there  were  at  first 
no  evidences  of  emotion  other  than  those  of  comfort  and  dis- 
comfort. The  sensations  first  assimilated  were  connected  with 
bodily  feelings  of  well  being — the  satisfaction  of  hunger,  dry- 
ness,  warmth,  etc.1  On  this  purely  personal  foundation  all 
subsequent  development  was  built  up.  Along  with  intellectual 
evolution  there  occurred  a  differentiation  of  emotions.  In  so 
far  as  those  degrees  and  complexities  of  feeling  and  thought 
to  which  we  are  accustomed  to  refer  as  the  emotions,  were  sev- 
erally called  forth  by  the  situations  in  which  the  child  was 
placed,  they  became  instrumental  in  determining  lines  of  activ- 
ity and  of  survival.  As  the  child  became  acquainted  with 
things  an  interest  in  them  was  developed  which  became  the 
chief  determining  influence  of  survival. 

We  have  now  seen :  (i)  The  point  from  which  the  lines  of 
mental  activity  diverged;  (2)  the  means  by  which  the  mental 
outlook  was  expanded;  (3)  the  connection  of  the  successive 
view  points  or  apperception  masses  ;  and  (4)  the  motive  of  such 
connection. 

The  processes  of  mental  elaboration  remain  to  be  described. 

Reactions  have  already  been  so  fully  treated  under  move- 
ments and  sensations  that  from  this  point  I  shall  omit  all  special 
consideration  of  them,  giving  them  only  incidental  mention 
where  necessary.  Suffice  it  here  to  make  the  general  statement 
that  reactions  were  to  be  found  corresponding  to  any  plane  of 
development  upon  which  the  child  stood.  There  was  a  gradu- 
ated series  of  such  reactions  extending  along  the  pathway  from 
sensation  to  idea. 

Sensations,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  were  developed  around 
certain  centers.  These  centers  were  objects  of  the  environment 
acting  in  various  ways  as  stimuli.  When  a  given  center  with 
its  associates  stood  out  in  consciousness  from  other  centers  and 
clusters,  which  were  all  the  while  forming,  that  particular  center 
was  distinguished.  Intermediate  between  sensations  and  such 
distinctions  there  were  perceptions  and  recognitions.  It  is  not 

JIt  has  already  been  shown  that  the  first  movements  to  be  developed  were 
connected  with  the  attainment  of  comfort.  Movements,  p.  43. 


90  KATHLEEN   CARTER   MOORE. 

possible  to  ascribe  a  fixed  time  limit  to  each  stage  of  develop- 
ment, because  when  a  stage  was  once  reached,  necessary  and 
useful  gains  either  continued  to  appear  in  their  original  form, 
or  led  to  further  progress  through  a  series  of  transitional 
changes ;  yet  a  rough  time  estimate  may  be  made  for  each 
period.  Thus  the  child  may  be  said  to  have  been  in  the  sensa- 
tion stage  during  the  first  month ;  in  the  perception  stage  during 
the  next  three  months ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  stage  of  dis- 
tinction with  the  entrance  into  the  fourth  month.  That  he  was 
always  in  a  stage  of  association  must  not  be  forgotten,  for  the 
continual  formation  of  associations  was  one  of  the  very  notice- 
able features  of  infancy. 

In  speaking  of  distinctions  I  do  not  wish  to  convey  the  idea 
that  discrimination,  or  the  perception  of  analogy,  were  involved 
in  this  separation  of  object  from  object,  which  (separation)  was 
based  upon  recognitions1  akin  to  such  as  have  been  described 
under  hearing.2  When  the  child  was  in  the  stage  of  distinction 
the  objective  reference  of  sensation  was  fairly  wrell  established. 
In  this  stage  he  looked  for  the  source  of  stimulation  outside  of 
himself  and  found  it  in  some  object  whose  qualities  were  as- 
sociated as  they  influenced  him  and  were  fused  into  his  personal 
idea  of  the  object.  Such  ideas  were  necessarily  incomplete. 
At  first  they  dealt  with  comparatively  few  objects,  but  the  cir- 
cle widened  by  degrees.  As  he  became  able  to  sit,  to  creep 
and  to  walk  he  was  brought  into  fresh  contacts  and  was  en- 
abled to  form  new  distinctions.  This  he  constantly  did. 

In  discussing  sensation,  movement  and  association  I  have 
used  the  expression  '  mental  representative '  without  having  at- 
tempted to  explain  what  the  nature  of  a  mental  representative 
was.  Such  an  explanation  I  cannot  make  without  entering  a 
field  of  conjecture.  That  the  mental  representatives  of  the 
early  weeks  were  the  forerunners  of  true  mental  images  or  rep- 
resentations there  can  be  no  doubt.  Early  mental  images  did 
not  deal  with  objects  as  wholes.  Each  was  the  result  of  a  men- 
tal synthesis  of  feelings  derived  from  particular  contacts.  Some 
of  the  later  ideas  were  the  outcome  of  experiences  with  objects 

JFor  illustration  of  recognitions  see  appended  table. 
2Sensation,  pp.  67-68.     Of  this  part. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  91 

perceived  as  wholes.  A  study  of  the  desires  of  the  child  gave 
some  insight  into  the  nature  and  number  of  his  representations. 
When  the  child  could  by  the  use  of  language  show  that  he 
wished  to  have  an  object  not  present  to  sense  we  may  conclude 
that  he  possessed  a  representation  of  the  object  complete  enough 
to  be  associated  as  a  central  figure  with  feelings  of  pleasure. 
Some  representations  had  undoubtedly  been  formed  by  the 
ninth  month,  but  it  was  not  till  the  second  year  that  the  child 
showed  himself  to  be  possessed  of  a  number  of  fairly  complete 
images.  In  Part  I.1  it  was  shown  that  the  child  came  to  be 
practically  at  the  mercy  of  such  images,  which  through  sugges- 
tion exercised  the  controlling  influence  upon  his  activities.  It 
was  apparent  that  his  memory  images  were  not  bound  to  the 
the  terms  of  one  sense.  That  the  child  belonged  to  one  of  the 
so-called  types  I  have  never  been  able  to  ascertain.  A  study 
of  his  recognitions  pointed  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  not  of 
determined  type.  Up  to  the  close  of  the  first  year  the  repre- 
sentations or  memory  images  were  of  a  very  primitive  kind. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  number  of  sensation  elements 
which  had  entered  into  the  formation  of  one  of  these  memory 
images,  and  however  complete  a  representation  of  an  object 
such  an  image  might  have  been,  it  was  nevertheless  not  asso- 
ciated with  other  images  or  representations  in  such  a  way  that 
one  was  able  to  call  up  another.  Memory  images  were  not  as- 
sociated with  one  another  independently  of  objective  suggestion 
before  the  second  year. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  comparisons  and  discrimina- 
tions were  rarely  made  before  the  second  year,  for  how  could 
one  object  be  measured  against  another  which  it  had  not  the 
power  to  call  up  ?  And  in  the  case  of  the  perception  of  similar- 
ity, how  could  that  occur  before  one  mental  image  could  call  up 
another?  During  the  second  year,  and  especially  during  the 
second  half  of  this  year,  associations  were  gradually  formed 
connecting  mental  image  with  mental  image.  Thus  chains  of 
images,  of  acts,  persons,  words,  etc.,  were  formed  and  the 
mental  life  became  far  more  complex. 

But  even  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  the  child  had  practi- 

>P.3x. 


92  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE, 

cally  no  mechanism  of  voluntary  recall.  In  order  to  recall 
anything  it  was  necessary  to  reach  his  memory  for  it  through 
the  suggestive  influence  of  recurring  circumstances,  some  of 
which  must  be  the  same,  or  very  similar,  to  those  which  had 
formed  the  original  setting  of  that  which  was  to  be  recalled ; 
for  example,  the  child,  having  laid  down  and  left  a  toy  for  a 
time,  was  not  afterwards  able  to  recall  its  whereabouts,  though 
he  desired  greatly  to  find  it.  If,  however,  he  happened  to  find 
himself  in  the  place  in  which  he  had  previously  left  the  article, 
he  at  once  remembered  about  it,  and  demanded  it  if  it  were  no 
longer  there. 

In  the  second  year  his  natural  retentiveness  was  remark- 
able. The  time  during  which  the  accurate  memory  of  an  inci- 
dent was  preserved  was  a  frequent  source  of  surprise  to  his  eld- 
ers. Yet  his  memory  images  were  not  held  in  words,  nor  had 
the  child  himself  any  evident  control  over  them.1 

Beginning  in  the  twenty-first  month,  I  made  a  few  experi- 
ments in  order  to  learn  something  of  the  nature  and  duration  of 
these  memories.  The  following  facts  were  revealed :  When 
the  memory  image  did  not  fuse  with  a  class  idea  it  could  persist 
distinct  and  full  as  to  its  details  for  from  six  to  eleven  weeks 
(eleven  weeks  was  the  experimental,  not  the  real  time  limit)  ; 
where  it  did  fuse  with  a  class  idea  it  lost  its  distinctness  and  in- 
dividuality in  a  period  of  time  which  varied  in  length  according 
to  the  stage  of  development  of  the  class  idea  with  which  it 
fused.  If  the  class  idea  was  in  process  of  formation  and  rested 
as  yet  upon  but  few  representatives  of  the  class,  each  of  those 
few  was  naturally  more  distinct  than  it  would  be  at  a  later  day, 
when  many  representatives  had  contributed  towards  the  mak- 
ing of  the  class. 

Thus  far  I  have  everywhere  spoken  of  associations  simply 
as  such,  without  pausing  to  define  the  kind  of  association  with 
which  we  were  dealing. 

I  now  wish  to  show,  first,  that  what  is  commonly  called  as- 
sociation by  similarity  is  as  fundamental  a  type  as  association 

1  During  the  third  year  the  feats  of  memory  became  more  noteworthy;  it 
was  a  matter  of  daily  occurrence  for  the  child  to  refer  spontaneously  to  events 
which  had  taken  place  three,  six,  nine  and  even  twelve  months  earlier. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  93 

by  contiguity,  even  though  it  be  a  somewhat  less  primitive  one ; 
second,  that  association  by  similarity  led  to  (a)  the  perception 
of  analogy  (b)  discriminations  (c)  inference ;  and  third,  as- 
sociation by  contiguity  lay  at  the  foundation  of  (d)  reproduc- 
tion, and  (>)  reconstruction. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  representations  and  ideas  of  the 
child  were  formed  by  the  union  of  diverse  elements.  It  has 
further  been  stated  that  there  was  in  each  representation  a  cen- 
tral or  principal  element  around  which  the  others  were  clus- 
tered. Upon  such  foundations  there  occurred  two  forms  of  as- 
sociation which  may  be  somewhat  approximately  designated  as 
association  by  contiguity  and  association  by  similarity.  In  the 
form  first  named  the  series  of  connected  memories  was  called 
forth  by  the  repetition  of  the  leading  circumstances — it  was  that 
form  which  depended  upon  the  existence  of  identity.  In  the 
second  form  we  have  the  series  of  connected  memories  called 
forth  by  something  (either  object  or  experience)  not  identical 
with  the  center  to  which  the  cluster  belonged,  but  enough  like 
it  in  one  or  more  particulars  to  be  effective  as  a  means  of  re- 
call. There  were  a  few  rare  instances  of  confusion  of  identity, 
the  second  suggestion  resembling  an  earlier  one  closely  enough 
to  bring  this  about.  Associations  of  simple  contiguity  predomi- 
nated at  all  times.  In  the  ninety-eighth  week  I  found  every  act 
of  the  child  during  the  greater  part  of  a  day  to  be  connected 
with  such  associations.  Associations  of  similarity  began  to  oc- 
cur about  the  fortieth  week.  They  were  the  descendants  of 
recognitions,  and  began,  not  in  the  association  of  like  object 
with  like  object,  but  in  the  power  of  certain  elements  to  suggest 
a  well  known  experience.  They  began  in  the  suggestive 
power  of  elements  forming  the  bases  of  recognitions ;  but  as 
object  became  separated  from  object,  and  experiences  became 
multiplied,  these  associations  grew  to  consist  in  the  suggestion 
of  an  image  by  a  similar  object. 

Association  by  similarity  and  association  by  contiguity  met 
in  an  undifferentiated  process  at  a  time  when  objects  were  not 
recognized  as  wholes,  when  the  child  responded  to  features  of 
the  environment  and  not  to  things  perceived  as  such. 

Elements  always  continued  to  be  suggestive ;  in  fact,  they 


94  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

became  more  suggestive  as  time  went  on,  but  the  suggestion  of 
object  by  object  was  not  of  common  occurrence  before  the  sev- 
enty-first week.  Through  association  by  similarity  the  mental 
juxtaposition  of  like  objects  was  brought  about,  as  a  result  of 
which  the  perception  of  analogy  was  developed.  It  will  now 
be  seen  in  what  manner  the  ability  to  discriminate  was  genetic- 
ally related  to  association  by  similarity.  There  was  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  development  of  discrimination  only  after  an  object 
present  to  sense  could  call  up  the  representation  of  one  not 
present. 

The  perception  of  likeness  and  of  difference  are  often 
spoken  of  as  though  they  were  separate  aspects  of  the  same 
thing.  In  the  present  case  the  perception  of  likeness  was  not 
the  reverse  side  of  the  perception  of  difference.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  was  developed  while  discriminative  power  was  in  its  in- 
fancy. Both  belong  to  the  third,  rather  than  to  the  second  year. 

The  study  of  many  cases  of  childish  inferences  reveals  these 
characters  to  be  common  to  all.  Each  was  based  upon  past  ex- 
periences. The  premises  from  which  the  conclusion  followed 
were  elements  common  to  both  past  and  present  experiences, 
and  both  premises  and  conclusion  fell  within  the  *  apperceived 
svstem  '  of  the  child.1 

In  Language  it  is  said  that  the  extension  of  the  meanings  of 
words  depended  upon  inferences  of  a  crude  form.  This  is  the 
form  to  which  I  there  referred.  Likewise  all  errors  and  all  spon- 
taneous interpretations  of  phenomena  were  inferences  based 
upon  the  suggestions  of  similar  elements. 

What  is  familiarly  known  as  imagination  was  the  recon- 
struction and  rearrangement  of  what  was  already  at  hand.  In 
its  most  primitive  form,  that  in  which  associations  by  contiguity 
were  involved,  chains  of  experiences  were  reproduced  in  the 
order  in  which  they  had  been  met ;  but  as  the  child  became 
able  to  perceive  likenesses  and  differences,  and  true  internal  as- 
sociations became  possible,  one  representation  could  suggest 
another  quite  independently  of  original  contiguity  arrangement. 

]  "  Inference  cannot  possibly  take  place  except  through  the  medium  of  an 
identity  or  universal  Avhich  acts  as  a  bridge  from  one  case  or  relation  to  another. 
*  *  *  *  Ultimately  the  condition  of  inference  is  always  a  system."  B.  Bosan- 
quet,  The  Essentials  of  Logic,  pp.  139-140. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  95 

Thus  reconstructions  involving  a  greater  number  of  processes 
began  to  occur  about  the  close  of  the  second  year. 

A  few  points  remain  to  be  mentioned  before  the  subject  of 
mental  elaboration  is  laid  aside.  The  first  of  these  is  concerned 
with  the  nature  of  the  child's  ideas.  Had  he  class  ideas  resem- 
bling our  own?  During  the  second  year  he  undoubtedly  had 
some,  but  not  a  great  many,  and  those  that  he  possessed  had 
grown  up  as  the  result  of  an  extended  series  of  experiences 
with  the  objects  which  we  are  accustomed  to  designate  by  class 
names  (dogs,  cats,  men,  women,  children,  dishes  and  chairs 
are  a  few  of  them) . 

His  words,  as  a  rule,  had  a  definite  content,  a  fixed  relation 
to  the  object  or  phenomenon  to  which  they  applied.  The  fact 
that  they  were  rarely  used  just  as  we  use  words,  and  with  the 
meanings  which  we  are  wont  to  attach  to  them,  might  lead  to 
the  error  of  supposing  that  the  meanings  which  the  child  him- 
self attached  to  his  words  were  vague.  It  has  been  shown  that 
abstract  words  did  not  occur  in  the  vocabulary ;  had  I  space  in 
which  to  do  so  I  could  show  by  a  citation  of  special  cases  that  he 
had  no  abstract  ideas  pertaining  to  his  concrete  words.  A  close 
observation  of  the  meanings  attached  by  the  child  himself  to 
his  words  showed  that  those  which  had  not  reference  to  some 
one  occurrence  or  object  related  to  one  or  more  aspects  of  ex- 
perience upon  the  basis  of  which  things  possessing  these  in  com- 
mon were  designated  by  a  common  name.  For  example,  the 
verb  to  spill  meant  voluntarily  to  tip  the  mug  or  glass  and  pour 
some  fluid  therefrom,  while  the  verb  to  find  referred  to  the  act 
of  appearance  under  the  greatest  variety  of  circumstances. 

All  ideas  of  the  first  year  were  not  connected  with  words. 
The  ideas  of  the  second  year  were  formed  along  with  the  learn- 
ing of  words  and  were  modified  accordingly.  The  formation 
of  ideas  did  not  depend  upon  words,  but  upon  perceptions  ob- 
tained directly  from  the  world  without  the  child.  Nearly  to  the 
close  of  the  second  year  language  belonged  to  the  apperceived 
system,  and  was  not  in  its  beginnings  a  prime  factor  in  the  de- 
velopment of  thought.  Late  in  the  second  year  language  be- 
came a  channel  for  the  conveyance  of  thought. 

Special  care  must  be  taken  not  to  fall  into  the  error  of  as- 


96  KATHLEEN  CARTER   MOORE. 

cribing  indefiniteness  to  the  ideas  of  the  child — an  error  which 
has  arisen  out  of  the  custom  of  measuring  his  ideas  by  the 
standards  of  our  own.  When  a  representation  had  been 
evolved  it  was  concrete  and  limited.  It  is  true,  it  did  not  rep- 
resent the  whole  object  together  with  its  uses  in  the  sense  in 
which  we  conceive  of  a  thing,  but  it  did  represent  very  definitely 
the  object  in  its  relations  to  the  child  himself.  In  the  second 
year  was  it  indefiniteness  which  compelled  him  to  perform  day 
after  day  the  same  round  of  actions?  Not  at  all,  for  it  was  the 
circumscribed  and  closely  knit  groups  of  associations  which 
controlled  the  direction  of  motor  discharge,  and  which  in  a 
given  case  was  only  finally  broken  up  by  the  interpolation  of  a 
new  product  of  experience. 

It  has  already  been  stated1  that  in  no  case  did  a  subsequent 
synthesis  require  an  amount  of  time  for  its  construction  equal 
to  that  which  had  been  consumed  in  gathering  the  materials 
and  building  the  first  synthesis  of  a  series  of  related  ones. 
The  ability  of  the  child  to  form  such  syntheses  increased  with 
practice  till  it  became  habitual  to  him  to  form  them.  What  the 
process  was  by  which  the  mental  synthesis  of  the  associated 
representatives  of  sensations  was  accomplished  I  cannot  say. 
Yet  it  was  certain  that  after  the  fourth  month  some  cluster  of 
associations  daily  passed  through  the  transforming  process  and 
became  the  mental  representative  of  a  thing.  The  history  of 
childish  generalizations  and  of  so-called  errors  showed  that 
representations  were  often  formed  upon  incomplete  experiences  ; 
namely,  a  few  sensations,  incorporating  material  drawn  from 
memory.  In  early  infancy  errors  rarely  occurred,  and  it  was  not 
till  many  associations  had  been  established  that  errors  arose.  In 
early  infancy  each  synthesis  was  based  directly  upon  sensations 
connected  by  contiguity  ;  while  in  later  infancy  new  experiences 
did  not  stand  alone,  but  were  instantly  placed,  as  if  by  neces- 
sity, in  some  arrangement  with  those  of  the  past.  Such  an  ar- 
rangement might  or  might  not  correspond  to  the  objective  one. 
If  it  did  not  so  correspond  the  resulting  incongruity  might  be 
designated  an  error.  What  I  have  called  a  necessity  was  the 
mental  habit  according  to  which  it  was  so  placed. 

1  Touch,  p.  78. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  97 

Inference  was  not  the  only  form  of  reasoning  of  which  there 
was  evidence.  Generalization  and  induction1  also  occurred, 
and  if  they  were  less  conspicuous  than  inference  it  was  because 
a  longer  time  was  required  for  their  accomplishment.  It  seems 
to  me  that  an  embryonic  induction  was  manifested  when  the 
child  refused  to  reach  for  an  object  whose  distance  from  him 
was  greater  than  the  length  of  his  arm  ;  for,  whatever  the  men- 
tal terms  in  which  a  knowledge  of  distance  was  given,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  had  the  knowledge,  and  that  it  was  a  permanent 
measure  which  had  been  given  to  him  out  of  the  common  ele- 
ment of  innumerable  separate  trials.  The  same  might  be  said 
of  his  ideas  of  magnitude,  depth  and  direction.  A  good  exam- 
ple of  induction  occurred  in  the  second  year.  About  the  one 
hundredth  week  the  child  became  impressed  with  the  *  again- 
ness'  of  experiences,  and  constantly  remarked  upon  it  with  sur- 
prise. On  coming  to  the  table  he  looked  at  the  various  dishes, 
viands,  etc.,  exclaiming  at  each,  "Here  it  is  again!"  Like- 
wise if  a  member  of  the  family  returned  after  an  absence  he 
never  failed  to  notice  the  reappearance  in  a  similar  manner. 
After  some  two  weeks  of  this  he  acquired  a  confidence  in  reap- 
pearance and  recurrence — derived  a  principle,  as  it  were — and 
began  to  state  in  a  positive  manner  that  such  was  to  be  ex- 
pected. When  he  had  gotten  to  this  stage  he  cheerfully  saw 
his  mother  go  away,  asserting  that  she  would  come  again, 
whereas  before  he  had  been  loth  to  have  her  leave  him. 

Under  voluntary  movement2  I  have  spoken  of  an  influence 
exerted  by  reason  in  determining  the  course  of  a  discharge  as 
early  as  the  forty-sixth  week.  But  I  did  not  show  what  we  are 
now  in  a  position  to  observe ;  namely  that  the  higher  forms  of 
thought  were  developed  with  the  more  complicated  movements 
and  existed  in  embryo  before  abstraction  was  to  any  extent  possi- 
ble, and  that  inference,  induction,  generalization  and  reconstruc- 
tion were  mental  habits  in  the  same  sense  that  sitting,  creeping, 
etc.,  were  habits,  and  that  each  mental  habit  was  developed  by  a 
method  similar  to  that  found  in  the  development  of  a  bodily 

111  Really  induction  is  only  a  popular  name  for  such  inference  as  deals  with 
numbers  of  instances."     H.  Bosanquet,  op.  cit.,  p. 163. 
2  Part  L,  Sec.  2. 


98  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

habit,  becoming  fixed  as  an  active  factor  in  mental  life  and  the 
means  of  further  acquirement  very  much  as  each  habit  of  the 
body  did.  Thus  we  find  two  systems  of  habits  developing  side 
by  side  and  mutually  dependent.  And  with  them  two  systems 
of  ideas,  to  the  first  of  which  belonged  those  derived  from  ex- 
periences with  things,  and  to  the  second  those  resulting  from 
the  use  made  of  experiences  according  to  the  habits  or  pro- 
cesses of  mental  integration  and  elaboration. 

A  careful  examination  of  the  two  tables  which  are  herewith 
appended  will  facilitate  the  understanding  of  the  statements 
that  have  just  been  made.  These  tables  will  he  found  to  be 
self  explanatory,  and  need  not  detain  us  longer  here.  I  shall 
therefore  proceed  to  sketch  in  outline  the  course  of  this  devel- 
opment of  an  idea  which  is  added,  with  the  tables,  in  the  hope 
of  giving  definiteness  and  clearness  to  the  above  exposition. 
The  idea  selected  for  the  sketch  had  its  beginnings  in  the 
most  primitive  experiences  of  the  child.  This  was  the  idea  of 
his  mother ;  it  was,  in  fact,  the  only  idea  that  referred  to  an  ob- 
ject which  was  not  a  part  of  himself,  and  which  yet  was  an 
ever  present  factor  of  his  environment.  From  my  notes  I  have 
selected  a  few  of  the  salient  points  in  the  growth  of  this  idea. 

In  the  beginning  the  child  sucked  whatever  was  put  into  his 
mouth,  whether  this  was  his  own  finger,  the  nipple  or  the  cor- 
ner of  a  pillow.  He  usually  suckled  with  his  eyes  closed.  On 
the  fifty-fifth  day  he  began  to  keep  his  eyes  open  while  suck- 
ling, letting  them  wander  over  the  dress,  breast  and  sometimes 
the  face  of  his  mother.  Through  seeing  her  face  so  frequently 
in  other  situations  than  this  he  became  independently  familiar 
with  it,  and  began  to  associate  the  sight  of  her  face  with  his  own 
comfort.  But  it  was  not  till  the  thirteenth  week  that  he  identi- 
fied the  face  above  the  breast  with  the  one  familiar  in  other  cir- 
cumstances. 

In  the  tenth  week  he  began  to  notice  his  mother's  dress,  be- 
ing at  once  attracted  by  a  change  in  it.  In  the  fifteenth  week 
she  wore  a  dress  at  which  he  often  looked,  yet  three*  weeks 
later,  lying  on  the  floor  beside  the  chair  in  which  she  sat  he  was 
at  first  interested  in  the  dress,  then  became  lonely,  beginning  to 
worry  as  if  though  she  were  away,  and  finally  was  surprised 


MENTAL    DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  99 

when  he  chanced  to  discover  her  face  just  above  him.  It  was 
not  till  about  the  twenty-seventh  week  that  he  began  to  connect  a 
skirt,  moving  or  at  rest,  with  a  face  above  it.  As  early  as  the 
tenth  week  he  was  dissatisfied  if  his  mother  sat  near  him  with 
her  face  averted,  and  only  ceased  to  worry  when  she  altered 
her  position,  yet  in  the  fifteenth  week  it  startled  him  to  see  her 
face  alternately  with  the  back  of  her  head.  In  the  fourteenth 
week  he  often  felt  her  hair,  but  it  was  not  till  the  forty-fourth 
week  that  he  was  interested  in  watching  her  put  it  up,  and  it 
was  late  in  the  second  year  before  he  understood  that  it  could 
not  be  taken  off  of  her  head  and  given  to  him. 

By  the  thirty-eighth  week  the  satisfaction  of  hunger  had  be- 
come so  closely  associated  with  his  mother  that,  although  nour- 
ished better  by  artificial  food,  he  refused  it  from  her  hand,  while 
he  accepted  it  readily  from  his  father  if  his  mother  were  not  in 
sight.  In  the  thirty-eighth  week  he  recognized  his  mother's 
hand  as  similar  to  his  own,  and  later  other  parts  of  her  body 
and  portions  of  her  clothing.  Such  recognition,  however,  did 
not  extend  to  parts  of  which  he  did  not  have  experience,  for  in 
the  one-hundred-and-third  week  he  insisted  that  her  neck, 
which  he  saw  between  the  ends  of  her  collar  in  front,  was  her 
back.  In  the  sixty-sixth  week  he  was  distressed  to  see  her  in 
an  unusual  attitude,  her  arms  outstretched  above  her  head.  By 
the  eighty-third  week  her  clothing  had  become  so  completely 
involved  in  his  idea  of  her  person  that  he  was  shy  with  her 
when  for  the  first  time  within  his  recollection  she  appeared 
dressed  for  a  social  event.  In  the  forty-first  week  he  showed  a 
decided  preference  for  his  mother  over  other  people.  In  the 
forty-eighth  week  he  began  to  regard  her  as  exclusively  his,  and 
resented  attentions  shown  her  by  anyone  else.  In  the  second 
year  he  did  not  like  to  have  her  attention  engrossed  by  other 
people  and  things.  About  the  ninety-seventh  week  he  began 
to  understand  that  other  children  had  mothers  of  their  own,  but 
it  was  difficult  for  him  to  grasp  the  idea  of  one  mother  for  two 
children. 


100 


KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 


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106  KATHLEEN  CARTER   MOORE. 


SECTION  II.— TIME. 

The  experiences  underlying  the  perception  of  time  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes.  To  the  first  class  belong  those  ex- 
periences which  had  to  do  with  periodicity ;  to  the  second  those 
which  formed  sequences.  The  experiences  of  periodicity  re- 
lated to  the  functions  of  the  body — sleep,  nutrition,  etc. — and 
came  to  consciousness  in  the  form  of  recurring  wants.  No  time 
regularity  in  the  recurrence  of  these  wants  was  established  pre- 
vious to  the  sixth  week.  In  the  case  of  nutrition  this  was  ow- 
ing to  several  causes,  the  most  significant  of  which  were  the  sus- 
ceptibility of  the  child  to  fatigue  and  the  long  hours  of  unbroken 
sleep,  which  operated  against  the  methodical  apportionment  of 
the  day.  By  the  fourth  month  the  child  became  hungry  and 
sleepy  at  regular  intervals  and  at  fixed  hours.  The  regularity 
of  the  recurrence  of  the  feeling  of  hunger  was  most  marked ; 
for  it  was  a  matter  almost  of  certainty  that  he  would  awake 
within  a  few  moments  of  the  hour  for  feeding,  though  it  had 
never  been  customary  to  arouse  him  for  this  purpose.  From 
the  second  to  the  sixth  month  intervals  resting  upon  periodic 
functional  performance  were  the  time  data.  That  conscious- 
ness was  aware  of  each  of  these  recurrent  experiences  was 
clear.  It  was  through  the  acts,  feelings  and  perceptions  which 
accompanied  it  that  each  was  known. 

The  intervals  between  the  satisfaction  of  the  physiological 
requirements  gradually  became  filled  with  successions  of  daily 
experiences,  so  that  from  morn  till  night  there  was  a  chain  of 
major  events  each  of  which  suggested  its  next  in  order.  In  the 
eighth  month  the  child  became  cross  and  refused  to  be  satisfied 
if  at  the  usual  time  he  was  not  taken  for  his  daily  airing ;  and 
this  was  because  he  recognized  the  events  which  usually  pre- 
ceded his  going  out,  and  not  because  he  perceived  the  time. 
That  an  abstraction  such  as  we  are  wont  to  designate  as  time 
resulted  directly  from  this  periodic  and  serial  arrangement  of 
experiences,  I  am  not  prepared  to  maintain.  Late  in  the  sec- 
ond year  his  daily  performances  became  associated  with  the 
clock  through  the  references  which  he  had  heard  to  the  hour  in 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  107 

connection  with  what  was  about  to  be  done.  Thus  his  own  in- 
tervals were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  acquirement  of  that  hu- 
man concept — the  idea  of  time.1 


SECTION   III.— DISANTCE,   DIRECTION   AND   MAG- 
NITUDE. 

The  perceptions  of  distance,  direction  and  magnitude,  in- 
volved as  they  are  with  the  conception  of  space,  rightfully  be- 
long to  this  portion  of  the  work  which  treats  of  ideas.  The  de- 
velopment of  these  perceptions  could  not,  moreover,  have  been 
classified  with  any  one  subdivision  of  sensations  and  move- 
ments. 

By  the  3ist  day2  the  child  was  able  to  fixate  and  to  follow, 
with  the  necessary  accommodations  to  distance,  an  object  which 
moved  from  directly  before  him  slowly  to  a  distance  of  ten  feet. 
On  the  same  day  his  eyes  followed  the  slow  movements  of  the 
carpet  sweeper  over  the  floor,  as  it  approached  and  receded  in 
front  and  from  side  to  side  of  the  sofa  upon  which  he  lay. 
That  the  eye  had  an  appreciation  of  distance  derived  from  its 
own  adjustments  independent  of  those  of  other  sets  of  muscles 
seems  possible  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  measures  of  distance  were 
obtained  from  data  furnished  by  movements  other  than  those  of 
the  eye  muscles. 

Sensations  from  the  eye  and  those  of  movement  from  an- 
other part  of  the  body  began  to  be  used  together  in  the  recogni- 
tion of  distance  about  the  fifty-seventh  day.  Shortly  before 
this  date  it  became  apparent  that  the  child  perceived  the  breast 
by  sight.  Then  he  learned  to  reach  for  the  nipple  with  his 
head  when  he  chanced  to  lose  his  hold  upon  it.  It  is  uncertain 
whether  the  distance  thereto  was  correctly  perceived  by  the  eye 
or  not.  Inasmuch  as  accommodations  to  changing  distances 
were  already  established,  it  is  posible  that  he  had  some  percep- 

xln  the  third  year  the  child  used  the  phrase  '  after  a  while'  intelligently,  and 
invented  'big  after  a  while  '  to  indicate  a  longer  period.  All  past,  immediate  or 
remote,  he  referred  to  a  yesterday,  and  a  future  less  fixed  than  '  after  a  while '  as 
Sunday.  '  Now '  meant  at  once. 

2Vision,  p.  56. 


108  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

tion  of  the  distance,  although  the  axes  of  his  eyes  converged 
somewhat  more  than  an  accurate  adjustment  would  have  re- 
quired. The  peculiarity  of  the  reaches  with  the  head  was  not 
that  they  deviated  markedly  to  one  side  or  to  the  other  of  an 
imaginary  straight  line  uniting  the  position  of  the  child's  mouth 
with  that  of  the  object  to  be  grasped ;  but  that  they  fell  short  of 
the  mark.  In  the  beginning  they  did  not  always  become  suc- 
cessively longer,  and  it  therefore  often  happened  that  no  one  of 
the  attempts  had  a  fortunate  termination.  By  the  fourteenth 
week  success  invariably  attended  the  first  effort. 

The  initial  attempts  at  reaching  with  the  hand  bore  one  re- 
semblance to  those  of  reaching  with  the  head ;  for  while  the 
eye  plainly  perceived  what  the  hand  should  have  touched,  there 
was  no  accurate  adjustment  of  the  arm  movements  to  the  dis- 
tance at  which  the  the  object  stood.  Now  there  are  four  ways 
of  explaining  this  want  of  adjustment : 

1.  The  eye  may  not  have  perceived  the  distance  at  which 
the  object  stood  ;  or 

2.  The  eye  may  have  perceived  the  distance  and  the  diffi- 
culty have  rested  altogether  upon  the  arm  movements ;  or 

3.  Both  eye  and  arm  may  have  been  at  fault;  or 

4.  The  want  of  adjustment  may  have  been  due  to  a  mental 
gap  in  the  associative  connection,  as  a  result  of  which  (gap) 
eye  distance  and  arm  distance  failed  to  combine.     By  the  ex- 
pression *  arm  distance '  are  meant  feelings  of  movements  which 
correspond  to  various  degrees  of  extension.     The  study  of  arm 
movements  has  brought  out  the  fact  that  arm  distance  was  at 
this   time  somewhat  established  and  we  have  seen  above  that 
the  eye  had  received  some  training  in  the  perception  of  dis- 
tance.    Therefore  the  fourth  explanation  is  probably  the  cor- 
rect one. 

The  child  was  next  (thirteenth  week)  seen  to  reach  for 
what  was  within  the  range  of  his  arm,  and  not  to  try  for  that 
which  was  beyond.  Here  the  distance  of  the  arm  and  that  of 
the  eye  had  combined  to  form  the  first  concrete  measure  of  dis- 
tance. A  little  later  (sixteenth  week)  he  did  reach  for  objects 
beyond  the  arm  range,  at  the  same  time  leaning  towards  them 
or  moving  his  body  in  their  direction.  The  eye  must  have 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  109 

recognized  this  distance  as  longer ;  for  the  body,  as  yet  un- 
tried, had  not  given  an  indication  of  its  range.  This  knowl- 
edge was  not  fully  developed  till  the  thirty-ninth  week.  After 
the  sixteenth  week  the  perception  of  distances  was  developed 
slowly  and  very  gradually,  involving  on  the  one  hand  eye  move- 
ments and  the  observation  of  things  seen,  on  the  other  the  de- 
velopment of  the  perception  of  magnitudes  gained  through  hand 
contacts.  It  must  be  remembered  that  there  was  a  time  when 
the  child  could  not  handle  what  he  reached  after,  when  he  did 
not  know  how  to  hold  what  came  to  him,  unless  the  hand  could 
close  over  and  clasp  it.  After  grasping,  reaching  and  holding 
had  become  possible  to  him  his  experience  was  extended  from 
object  to  object  by  dint  of  much  practice  with  each.  When  he 
could  sit  erect  and  look  at  what  he  held,  the  sensations  from  eye 
and  hand  were  at  last  systematically  and  not  occasionally  induced 
by  the  same  object.  In  the  early  days  of  sitting  erect  there  oc- 
curred some  illustrations  of  the  process  by  which  the  separate 
perceptions  were  used  to  the  accomplishment  of  a  common  end, 
and  thus  made  to  contribute  towards  the  development  of  ideas. 
One  of  these  illustrations  is  here  quoted  from  the  journal : 

While  the  child  was  sitting  in  his  crib  a  glass  dumb-bell 
(long  diameter  four  in.),  with  cut  facets  was  laid  in  his  lap 
close  to  his  body.  This  he  had  not  before  seen.  He  held  a 
napkin  ring  in  his  right  hand.  During  the  performance  about 
to  be  described  his  gaze  remained  fixed  upon  the  dumb-bell  in 
his  lap.  This  he  tried  to  strike  with  the  napkin  ring.  The 
blow  fell  too  far  out.  The  attempt  was  repeated  three  times 
with  a  similar  result  for  each  trial.  He  then  with  the  left  hand 
felt  the  dumb-bell,  after  which  he  struck  it  successfully  once 
and  many  times.1 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  sitting  alone  had  become  habitual 
the  child  had  acquired  some  working  knowledge  of  form  and 
size  which  enabled  him  to  handle  objects  with  more  certainty 
and  ease,  and  here  the  perception  of  small  distances  was  devel- 
oped. By  the  forty-first  week  the  hand  and  arm  made  move- 

1  As  I  did  not  watch  the  child  during  the  time  he  continued  to  play  thus,  I 
do  not  know  whether  any  unsuccessful  attempts  alternated  with  the  successful 
ones  or  not. 


HO  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

ments  which  corresponded  to  small  distances  perceived  by  the 
eye.  In  the  twenty-ninth  week  the  child  began  to  roll  over  the 
floor  and  so  to  get  himself  from  one  place  to  another.  When 
he  began  to  creep  (forty-sixth  week)  and  later  to  walk  he  was 
already  familiar  with  the  lengths  to  be  traversed  and  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  accommodating  himself  to  them.  But  in  the  sixty-first 
week  he  moved  with  his  parents  to  a  new  home,  and  instead  of 
one  room  in  which  to  exercise  his  powers  of  locomotion,  he  had 
now  the  freedom  of  two.  Much,  though  not  all,  of  the  furniture 
in  these  rooms  was  already  familiar  to  him,  but  the  floor  spaces 
between  the  individual  pieces  were  considerably  larger.  His 
distance  measures  did  not  fit  the  new  surroundings  at  all  and 
for  two  days  the  child  was  like  one  out  of  his  element.  All  his 
efforts  at  going  from  place  to  place  ended  in  disaster.  On  the 
third  day  his  accommodation  to  the  new  surroundings  was  well 
established.  Within  ten  days  thereafter  a  second  change  was 
made,  and  on  being  taken  to  a  third  house  the  child  did  not 
show  again  the  same  difficulties  of  adjustment. 

It  is  probable  that  the  experiences  of  going  towards  objects, 
and  of  seeing  them  approach  and  recede,  had  an  influence  all 
along  in  the  development  of  the  perception  of  what  may  be 
called  the  horizontal  distance.  But  the  effects  of  such  an  influ- 
ence were  not  obvious  to  the  observer  in  the  way  that  those  of 
other  influences  were.  The  child  had  a  better  estimation  of 
horizontal  than  of  vertical  distances ;  but  whether  this  was  the 
result  only  of  the  greater  number  of  experiences  with  them,  or 
also  of  a  second  factor  such  as  I  have  pointed  to  above,  it  is  im- 
possible to  say.  He  had  some  perception  of  height  in  the 
forty-seventh  week,  and  this  distance  was  measured  by  himself, 
as  reaching  up,  standing,  etc.  He  seemed  to  have  no  percep- 
tion of  distance  below  himself,  or  depth,  before  the  sixty-eighth 
week ;  for  though  he  could  go  up  stairs  and  inclined  surfaces, 
he  would  have  walked  off  of  platforms,  porches  and  flights  of 
steps  with  the  movements  of  one  who  walks  upon  a  plane  surface. 
In  the  seventieth  week  he  learned  to  go  down  stairs,  and  after- 
wards recognized  at  once  places  in  which  this  method  was  to  be 
applied,  starting  upon  one  occasion  to  back  down  from  a  platform 
raised  more  than  six  feet  above  the  ground.  His  estimation  of 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  I II 

heights  beyond  those  measured  by  experiences  with  his  own 
body  was  always  inaccurate.  After  he  had  found  (eightieth 
week)  that  he  could  sometimes  get  objects  by  the  aid  of  a  chair, 
he  climbed  up  continually  to  try  to  get  what  was  beyond  his 
own  reach,  or  that  of  an  adult.1  Thus  it  would  seem  that  the 
development  of  the  perception  of  distance  did  not  depend  upon 
sensations  of  the  adjustments  of  any  one  set  of  muscles ;  but 
upon  the  establishment  of  concrete  measures  of  distance. 

To  return  to  the  perceptions  of  magnitude.  After  these  had 
been  developed  according  to  the  method  described  above,  it  was 
noteworthy  that  he  was  not  impressed  by  the  comparative  sizes 
of  things.  His  ideas  of  size  during  the  greater  part  of  the  sec- 
ond year  were  absolute  rather  than  comparative.  He  was  re- 
peatedly trying  to  fit  large  objects  into  small  places  and  com- 
mitted many  other  blunders  of  a  like  nature  which  showed  a 
failure  to  grasp  the  size  relations  of  things.  The  words  '  big  ' 
and  « little '  did  not  refer  to  nice  discriminations  of  magnitude. 
Things  which  he  called  '  big '  were  strikingly  so  of  their  kind, 
and  so  of  those  which  he  called  « little.'  He  did  not  use  adjec- 
tives to  describe  intermediate  sizes,  and  if  questioned  concern- 
ing them  he  would  give  no  reply. 

Direction  is  the  relation  of  an  object  to  the  surface  of  the 
body.  The  recognition  of  direction  would  seem  to  have  been 
a  matter  of  association  and  was  evidently  established  along 
with  the  development  and  use  of  the  sensory  apparatus.2  It 
was  the  necessary  concommitant  of  all  sensations  which  lay  at 
the  foundation  of  the  perception  of  distance ;  but  was  not  so  in- 
volved with  this  perception  as  to  be  inseparable  from  it.3 

Observations  revealed  the  fact  that  his  memory  for  direction 
and  for  distance  was  not  extremely  accurate.  To  quote  an  ob- 
servation of  the  eighty-ninth  week  in  illustration :  In  playing 
with  a  blue  stick  (the  shape  of  a  match  stick  one  inch  in  length) 
the  child  dropped  it  on  the  rug,  three  feet  from  the  border  and 
about  midway  between  the  sides  of  the  room.  As  he  was 
about  to  pick  it  up  (having  seen  where  it  fell)  he  was  called  to 

1  At  two  years,  nine  months  he  asked  me  to  get  a  star  to  hand  to  him,  say- 
ing :  "  I  can't  reach  it;  you  can  reach  it." 

2  Consult  Hearing,  p.  66 ;  also  Vision  on  the  direction  of  the  gaze. 

3  For  illustrations  consult  Hearing,  p.  66;  also  Touch  on  Localization. 


H2  KATHLEEN  CARTER   MOORE. 


a  person  who  sat  nine  feet  away.  In  a  moment  he  returned  to 
get  the  stick  and  ran  beyond  it  some  three  feet  (till  he  reached 
the  end  of  the  rug)  before  stopping  to  pick  it  up.  Not  finding 
it  there  he  walked  back  and  forth  across  the  rug  several  times 
looking  for  it  all  the  while.  At  last  he  gave  up  the  search. 


SECTION   IV.  — SOME   NOTES    ON   THE    RECOGNI- 
TION AND  INTERPRETATION  OF  PICTURES. 

Fifty-third  Week. — When  the  leaves  of  a  magazine  were 
turned  for  the  child  pictures  of  people  induced  expressions  of 
pleasure ;  but  he  took  no  notice  of  pictured  animals  and  of 
very  small  figures.  From  this  week  he  often  looked  at  pic- 
tures, but  his  interest  continued  to  be  centered  upon  illustra- 
tions representing  people. 

Seventy-fourth  Week. — He  designated  all  pictures  by  one 
name  (little  girl)  without  regard  to  contents. 

Seventy-seventh  Week. — He  called  the  photograph  of  a  baby, 
baby  ;  any  man,  papa  ;  any  woman,  girl. 

Eighty-seventh  Week. — A  barefooted,  scantily-clad  damsel, 
standing  near  a  cupid,  the  child  called  Mamie,  he  said  nothing 
about  the  smaller  figure.  Among  pictures  of  a  number  of  men 
he  called  only  one  who  had  a  mustache,  papa. 

Eighty-eighth  Week. — The  Sistene  Madonna  interested  him 
frequently.  He  would  look  at  it  and  exclaim:  "  A  baby!  A 
mamma  !  A  man  !  A  girl !  " 

Ninety-first  Week. — Of  a  small  picture  of  a  girl  (figure  i  ^ 
inches  in  height)  sitting  with  her  head  buried  in  her  hands,  he 
said:  "  Girl  cry." 

Ninety-fourth  Week. — He  had  an  attachment  for  an  exag- 
gerated caricature  of  a  cat  which  he  called  *  pussy  cat.' 

He  now  liked  pictures  of  any  description,  but  especially  the 
small  ones  among  the  advertisements  in  the  backs  of  magazines. 
He  was  interested  in  pointing  out  and  naming  conspicuous 
features  of  pictures.  He  got  the  relations  of  the  various  parts 
quite  well,  and  had  some  appreciation  of  the  perspective  of 
some  pictures. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  113 

Ninety-fifth  Week. — Seeing  for  the  first  time  a  picture  repre- 
senting a  naked  child  sitting  on  a  bench  in  the  water  and  hold- 
ing with  one  arm  a  large  pen,  he  said  :  "  A  little  boy,  sit  down, 
boat." 

Ninety-seventh  Week. — Of  a  shepherdess  and  sheep  he 
said  :  "  See  dogs,  see  dogs,  mamma  !  " 

Ninety-eighth  Week. — Of  pictures  of  men  he  always  recog- 
nized Mr.  Darwin,  M.  Charcot,  M.  Pasteur.  A  picture  of  a 
mountain  he  called  a  lady.  When  told  to  point  to  the  members 
of  her  body  he  said  of  each  in  turn  that  it  was  gone,  ending 
by  explaining  that  only  her  dress  was  there.  If  only  a  part  of 
the  body  was  depicted  (the  head  and  trunk,  for  example)  he 
described  the  picture  as  that  of  a  person  broken.  Of  a  woman 
sitting  on  a  chair  lashed  to  the  bowsprit  of  a  vessel  he  said : 
"  Lady,  sit  down  a  chair,  water,  boat."  He  recognized  at  once 
a  great  variety  of  pictured  boats,  which  was  noteworthy,  as 
twenty-two  weeks  had  elapsed  since  he  had  seen  ocean  or  boat, 
and  the  pictures  were  unlike  any  which  he  had  in  the  meantime 
looked  at. 

Ninth-ninth  Week — In  this  week  some  experiments  were 
made  on  the  interpretation  of  simple  pictures.  I  shall  not  here 
stop  to  enumerate  the  difficulties  besetting  the  experimenter.  As 
I  cannot  give  the  pictures,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  the 
number  and  variety  of  objects  and  relations  correctly  appre- 
hended by  the  child  was  very  large. 

One  Hundredth  Week. — Some  cuts  of  sections  of  the  brain 
he  called  '  baby  frog '  (his  name  for  pictures  of  embryos).  The 
marbled  paper  on  the  inside  of  a  book  binding  he  called  flowers. 

One  Hundred  and  Third  Week. — In  this  week  the  meaning 
and  movement  of  pictures  rather  than  the  simple  contents  began 
to  impress  the  child,  and  thereafter  he  described  them,  wherever 
possible,  in  terms  of  action.  Very  little  has  been  said  about  his 
recognition  of  pictures  which  he  had  seen  before.  In  the 
ninety-first  week  a  book  of  animals  was  given  to  the  child  in 
which  at  least  fifty  individuals  were  portrayed.  The  familiar 
domestic  animals  he  knew  at  once,  and  by  the  afternoon  of  the 
next  day  he  could  point  out  nearly  all  the  other  animals  if  they 
were  named  for  him.  The  pages  of  this  book  were  soon  scat- 
tered and  lost. 


H4  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE, 

In  the  one  hundred  and  second  week  someone  gave  the  child 
a  little  book  containing  six  full-page  illustrations  and  a  number 
of  smaller  pictures,  in  all  some  eight  pages  of  illustrations  and 
text.  He  looked  it  through  several  times,  both  alone  and  with 
another  person.  This  was  on  March  5th.  On  March  6th  he 
described  to  his  mother,  from  memory,  each  of  the  full-page 
illustrations.  He  spoke  of  them  in  the  sequence  of  the  book. 

One  of  those  memory  tests  elsewhere  mentioned  was  made 
with  a  picture.  It  was  selected  from  a  book  with  which  he  was 
thoroughly  familiar.  The  illustration  in  question  was  entitled 
The  Monkey's  School,  and  represented  a  large  monkey  wearing 
a  gown,  glasses  and  cap,  sitting  in  the  midst  of  a  class  of  young 
monkeys  also  dressed  and  engaged  in  various  pursuits.  All 
were  so  disguised  that  he  did  not  himself  recognize  them  as 
monkeys.  When  his  grandfather  showed  him  this  picture  he 
often  repeated  a  rhyme  in  which  the  word  monkey  occurred. 
The  child  himself  was  most  impressed  by  the  school  mistress, 
which  he  called  (  Mamma  monkey,'  and  was  accustomed  to 
point  to  her  glasses,  cap  and  book  (slate).  This  picture  was 
abstracted  from  the  book  and  put  away.  During  six  weeks  and 
six  days  he  did  not  see  it ;  but  he  saw  other  pictures  of  normal 
monkeys,  and  sometimes  recalled  the  rhyme  when  playing  with 
a  monkey  made  of  rags.  When  the  picture  was  restored  to  him 
(iO3d  week,  the  book  in  the  meantime  having  undergone  disin- 
tegration) he  at  once  recognized  it,  called  out  the  rhyme  and 
named  the  contents  according  to  his  former  method. 


PART  IV.— LANGUAGE. 

SECTION   I.— SOUNDS. 

The  first  sound  which  the  child  made  was  the  short,  expi- 
ratory a,  uttered  only  in  crying.  By  the  twentieth  day  he 
evinced  a  decided  interest  in  sounds.  By  the  thirty-third  day 
he  would  watch  attentively  the  face  of  a  person  speaking  to 
him,  and  three  days  later,  when  being  talked  or  sung  to,  he 
began  to  move  his  lips  and  to  make  some  sounds.  Ten  days 
after  this  responsive  sounds  were  habitually  made.  Then  what 
is  familiarly  known  as  4  crowing'  began  to  occur  with  frequency 
when  the  child,  lying  alone  and  in  comfort,  made  many  and 
various  sounds. 

The  voice,  at  first  weak,  gradually  became  strong,  but  prior 
to  the  eighteenth  week  no  fixed  method  of  using  it  was  devel- 
oped. At  different  times  all  qualities  of  tone,  from  the  deep 
chest  tones  to  the  strongly  nasal  ones,  were  heard.  After  the 
eighteenth  week  the  variation  in  tones  slowly  disappeared  and 
the  voice  gradually  settled  into  a  clear  falsetto. 

By  the  twelfth  week  he  had  begun  to  use  his  tongue,  which 
had  hitherto  moved  but  little  in  his  mouth.  Thereafter  there 
was  a  rapid  increase  in  the  number  and  variety  of  sounds  made 
by  the  child  in  crying  and  babbling.  It  is  very  difficult  for  one 
not  practiced  in  the  detection  and  recollection  of  sounds  to  hear 
and  to  note  accurately  all  those  which  a  little  baby  may  make  in 
its  rapid  and  continuous  babbling. 

At  the  close  of  the  fourth  month  it  was  my  impression  that 
the  child  had  made  well-nigh  all  the  sounds  which  occur  in  the 
language.  Yet  I  had  the  exact  record  of  but  few  which  had 
been  pronounced  as  isolated  sounds,  or  as  short  syllables,  and 
so  distinctly  as  to  render  their  identification  easy  and  certain. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  principal  sounds  and  syllables 
heard  and  noted  between  the  twelfth  and  fortieth  weeks : 


n6  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

In  crying : 

eng  da  u  ma-ma-a 

ma-a-a,  explosive  a  e  nm  nm 

In  babbling : 

eng  z  gr-r-r  bo  wo 

ang  diddle,  diddle,  e  e    ing  bow  wow 

d  e  u-u  u  ba 

t  th  udn  pop-pa-pa-pa 

ba  dth  udu  bob-ba 

a  um  go  good  mom-ma 

6  a  go  6  e  da 

ur-r-r  a  ma  a  da  ta  ta 

s  hadn  ma  tduck 

In  the  thirty-sixth  week  he  acquired  the  habit  of  repeating 
a  sound  of  his  own  upon  hearing  it  uttered  by  another  person. 
In  itself  this  practice  may  not  have  been  of  great  moment,  but 
as  an  intermediate  process,  leading  to  the  conscious  imitation 
of  sounds  not  his  own,  it  was  of  importance ;  for  by  conscious 
imitations  he  got  the  pronunciations  of  his  words. 

In  the  thirty-eighth  week  he  began  to  associate  a  few  words 
with  persons  and  objects.  In  the  fortieth  week  the  associations 
became  established  in  the  case  of  one  word — papa.  In  the 
forty-second  week  conscious  but  unintelligent  imitation  of  words 
became  habitual,  and  syllables  thus  acquired  occurred  after- 
wards in  babbling.  These  syllables  were  strung  together  and 
uttered  with  great  rapidity,  producing  a  chatter  which  in  its 
tones  and  inflections  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  conversation. 

Though  so  many  sounds  were  uttered  with  fluency  during 
the  months  which  preceded  the  acquirement  of  language,  not 
a  word  of  those  which  formed  the  first  vocabulary,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  word  mamma,  was  phonetically  an  exact 
reproduction  of  the  word-copy.  Each  of  238  of  the  475  words 
in  the  vocabulary  passed  through  one  or  more  transitional  pho- 
netic changes  before  its  final  form  was  attained.  Table  V. 
illustrates  some  of  these  changes ;  it  shows  the  alterations  ac- 
tually undergone  by  twenty-six  words.  The  several  headings ; 
namely,  omission,  introduction,,  addition  and  substitution  explain 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  117 

the  processes  by  which  these  changes  -were  wrought.  There  is 
also  a  column  in  which  is  to  be  found  the  last  recorded  pronun- 
ciation of  the  word,  and  a  further  column  in  which,  under  the 
caption  *  nucleus,'  are  placed  those  sounds  which  belonged  to 
the  word-copy  and  afforded  a  definite  phonetic  point  around 
which  later  changes  might  take  place.  Alterations  by  omission 
of  sounds  and  of  syllables  were  very  common,  as  is  shown  in 
Table  VI. 

But  four  instances  are  recorded  of  the  introduction  of  extra 
sounds  or  syllables  into  words,  and  but  one  case  of  the  addition 
of  a  final  sound.  Alterations  by  substitution  occurred  fre- 
quently, sometimes  alone  in  the  word,  sometimes  accompanying 
omissions.  When  the  child  had  learned  but  a  few  words,  alter- 
ations in  pronunciation  were  often  caused  by  confusion,  for  ex- 
ample the  word  papa,  at  first  correctly  pronounced,  became 
appa  when  ama  (grandma)  had  been  acquired,  paba  (ba  ba= 
baby)  and  pape  (be  be=baby)  after  baby  was  added.  Out  of 
the  confusion  the  word  papa  finally  emerged  and  was  thereafter 
correctly  pronounced. 

The  acquirement  of  a  new  sound  in  a  new  word  frequently 
preceded  its  introduction  into  words  wherein  it  had  not  before 
been  used ;  thus,  after  the  child  had  learned  to  pronounce  w  in 
wash  (wass)  and  woman,  w  was  introduced  as  a  substitute  for 
r.  A  new  sound,  once  acquired,  was  likely  to  crop  out  repeat- 
edly, in  the  word  in  which  it  had  been  learned,  in  other  words, 
and  in  unintelligent  babbling.  The  occurrence  of  sounds  not 
in  the  language  was  by  no  means  rare.  These  consisted  of 
gutterals,  ch,  rs,  and  the  indescribable  one  which  I  have  tried 
to  express  by  the  h'h  in  bottle,  but  which  any  letters,  alone  or 
combined,  must  fail  to  convey,  and  in  the  German  6  (written  oe 
in  the  tables  to  avoid  confusing  with  6) . 

After  having  examined  Tables  IV.  and  V.  the  following  ques- 
tions would  naturally  present  themselves  and  demand  a  reply 
before  it  should  be  possible  to  perceive  the  direction  of  devel- 
opment : 

1.  Did  the  nucleus  become  larger  as  the  child  became  older? 

2.  Were  the  words  seen  to  pass  through  fewer  changes  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  record? 


Ii8  KATHLEEN  CARTER   MOORE. 

3.  Did  omissions  and  substitutions  tend  to  become  habitual — 
or  to  state  it  otherwise,  were  certain  sounds  regularly  omitted, 
or  replaced  by  more  or  less  fixed  substitutes? 

4.  How  were  the  habitual  alterations  broken  up  and  finally 
replaced  by  the  correct  sounds? 

If,  in  order  to  obtain  an  answer  to  the  first  question,  the  first 
ten  words  of  the  vocabulary  are  compared  with  ten  words  ac- 
quired at  the  close  of  the  second  year,  48.7  %  of  all  the  sounds 
of  the  first  word-copies  are  found  to  have  been  correctly  pro- 
nounced, and  70.5  %  of  the  sounds  contained  in  the  second  list 
of  words;  62.9  %  of  the  sounds  of  twenty  words  acquired  at 
the  close  of  the  second  year  were  correctly  pronounced.  It  may 
be  said  that  the  first  ten  words  might  have  contained  a  prepon- 
derance of  phonetic  elements  especially  difficult  to  the  child. 
This  is  to  some  extent  the  case,  as  they  contained  four  sounds 
which  he  had  not  used  even  at  the  close  of  the  second  year, 
against  one  such  sound  in  the  second  list  (these  were  f,  j,  nk, 
'i  and  ch) .  The  selection  of  ten  additional  words  eliminated 
the  difference  and  reduced  the  average  of  later  words  to  62.9  %  • 
The  fact  remains  that  the  child  was  able  to  pronounce  a  word 
more  correctly  by  14.2  %  of  sounds  at  the  end  of  a  year  of 
practice. 

As  said  above,  each  of  the  early  words  passed  through  one 
or  more  transitional  changes.  For  the  first  ten  words  (except- 
ing mamma),  the  average  number  of  changes  was  2.8,  while 
five  of  them  had  each  four  transitions.  In  the  ten  words  taken 
from  the  last  of  the  list,  there  was  a  maximum  of  two  transi- 
tions, one  being  close  to  the  average.1 

In  looking  over  Table  V.  the  reader  will  be  struck  by  the 
variety  of  substitutions  for  each  sound.  While  Dr.  Tracy 
has  found  the  principle  of  replacement  to  be  that  of  the  substi- 
tution of  an  easier,  related  sound  for  the  difficult  one,2  we  can 
scarcely,  in  the  face  of  such  diversity  of  sounds  and  substitutes, 
look  to  his  as  the  only  principle  upon  which  the  apparently  law- 
less replacement  of  sounds  rested.  It  is  doubtless  true  that 

1  It  was  impossible  to  obtain  a  perfectly  correct  average  for  the  second  list, 
as  at  the  present  time  some  have  yet  to  undergo  a  final  alteration. 

2  Psychology  of  Childhood,  2ded.,  p.  150. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD. 

Dr.  Tracy's  principle  is  the  underlying  one — indeed,  the  evi- 
dence I  have  at  hand  lends  proof  in  a  general  way  to  his  main 
conclusions.  There  are,  however,  other  principles,  also  funda- 
mental, active  at  different  times  and  in  varying  degrees.  One 
of  these  has  already  been  noticed ;  namely,  the  confusion  of 
sounds  resulting  from  the  acquirement  of  new  words  somewhat 
similar  to  those  already  in  use.  This  confusion  is  more  likely 
to  occur  in  the  early  stages  of  learning  to  speak.  Errors  in 
the  recognition  of  sounds  were  a  second  and  fertile  source  of 
imperfect  reproduction. 

Tables  V.  and  VI.  do  not  afford  a  full  reply  to  the  third 
question.  In  glancing  at  the  multiplicity  of  substitutes  recorded 
in  Table  V.,  one  would  find  many  cases  in  which  there  was  ap- 
parently no  fixed  substitute.  When  pursuing  through  their 
changes  the  courses  of  the  various  words,  the  following  facts 
were  found  to  be  true  concerning  the  alterations  of  sounds  ;  habit- 
ual substitutions  were  evolved  in  a  special  word  and  in  the  vocabu- 
lary as  a  whole,  but  habitual  omissions  were  common  prior  to  hab- 
itual substitutions.  A  fixed  substitute  was  not,  as  one  might 
suppose,  always  developed  with  the  repeated  occurrence  of  the 
sound.  It  appeared  sometimes  early,  sometimes  late  in  the  his- 
tory of  a  word  sound.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  in 
many  cases  the  addition  to  the  vocabulary  of  a  number  of  words 
which  contained  a  certain  difficult  sound  influenced  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  sound.  This  was  the  case  with  the  substitution  of  oe  for 
ir,  six  words  in  which  ir  is  found,  having  been  added  about  the 
same  time.  Fixed  substitutions  were  broken  up  in  several  ways  ; 
by  the  introduction  of  a  second  substitute ;  by  the  influence  of 
new  phonetic  combinations  in  new  words  ;  but  chiefly  through 
persistent  efforts  of  the  child  to  correct  his  mistake,  and  the  con- 
sequent approximation  of  the  pronunciation  to  that  of  the  word- 
copy. 

Yet  another  question  now  arises — why  was  the  child  unable 
to  reproduce  in  words,  sounds  which  he  had  made  repeatedly 
alone  and  in  combination,  when  babbling  before  he  had  learned 
to  speak  (trilling  1  and  r  ;  and  th,  etc. ) .  No  doubt  the  incomplete 
subjection  of  the  apparatus  of  speech  to  the  centers  of  volun- 
tary control  had  much  to  do  with  his  imperfect  pronunciations. 


120  KATHLEEN   CARTER   MOORE. 

They  may  further  be  traced  to  faults  in  perception.  What  the 
child  did  perceive  of  the  spoken  word  or  word-copy  were  the 
sounds  and  syllables  emphasized ;  these  he  reproduced  before  he 
fully  distinguished  the  phonetic  elements.  In  words  of  more 
than  one  syllable  he  was  plainly  seen  to  have  been  impressed 
by  the  rhythm  of  the  syllables  as  the  following  lists  will  show : 

E'dith  A'dith  crack'er  ka'ka 

grand'ma  a'ma  car'pet  sweep'er  gah'luck'n 

bot'tle  bot'n  flow'er  ba'loo 

Al'len  A'na  thermom'eter  ma'teh 

night  gown  gi'gown  grand'pa'pa  pa'pa'pa 

When  the  child  did  distinguish  the  phonetic  elements  in  a 
word  he  did  not  reproduce  it  as  his  own  earlier  sound  (with 
which  he  probably  failed  to  identify  it),  but  as  a  new  sound,  his 
articulation  of  which  was  controlled  on  all  sides  and  rendered 
difficult  by  his  articulation  of  other  sounds  in  the  word. 


SECTION  II.— WORDS. 

Writers  who  have  studied  the  acquirement  of  language  de- 
scribe the  process  by  which  children  learn  to  speak  essentially 
as  follows :  The  infant  perceives  an  object  or  action  and  at  the 
same  time  hears  a  certain  combination  of  sounds.  Each  time 
the  object  is  brought  before  him  the  sounds  are  repeated,  till  he 
comes  to  associate  the  sounds  with  the  object,  so  that  when  he 
hears  them  a  memory  image  of  the  object  is  rung  up,  and  upon 
seeing  the  object  the  sounds  are  called  forth.  Thus  he  gets  to 
associate  object  by  object  with  word  by  word. 

At  first  he  does  not  attempt  the  articulation  of  the  words, 
understanding  merely  names,  simple  commands,  etc.  A  little 
later  he  essays  to  reproduce  the  words,  the  success  of  the  result 
being  variable.  In  this  manner  the  vocabulary  has  its  begin- 
ning ;  it  undergoes  further  increase  by  the  same  method.1  My 

1  See  article  by  Professor  Sully  in  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  for  February,  1895. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  121 

observations  have  led  me  to  consider  an  associative  process  such 
as  I  have  briefly  described  above  as  the  chief  underlying  pro- 
cess, active  throughout  the  whole  period  during  which  lan- 
guage was  being  acquired.  It  accounted  for  the  multiplication 
of  speech  forms,  which,  however,  was  not  the  only  feature  of 
language  development.  For  in  addition  there  was  the  increas- 
ing ability  to  use  more  complicated  constructions,  and  the  pe- 
culiarities of  mental  activity  which  were  effective  in  producing 
the  changes  in  the  use  of  language  which  were  observed  at  in- 
tervals during  the  second  year.  These  additional  features  in 
turn  are  but  different  aspects  of  the  process  by  which  the  child 
comes,  by  a  method  of  successive  approximations  into  the 
power  to  use,  in  common  with  other  persons,  a  language  which  he 
finds  prepared  for  him. 

As  early  as  the  twelfth  week  certain  sounds  were  associated 
with  the  expression  of  fixed  states  of  feeling  ;  for  the  child  cried 
"  eng  "  when  hungry,  and  "Ma-a-a"  when  hurt  or  in  sudden 
distress.  A  great  variety  of  sounds,  as  I  have  elsewhere  stated, 
occurred  when  the  child  was  babbling  in  comfort  and  content- 
ment ;  but  at  such  times  no  one  sound  was  used  exclusively. 
Nevertheless  the  voice  was  clearly  expressive  of  pleasure,  inter- 
est and  excitement. 

In  the  twenty-sixth  week  a  peculiar,  *  singing'  noise  was 
made  when  the  child  was  contented. 

Twenty-ninth  Week. — Bob-ba  indicated  comfort  and  good 
feeling.  Mom-ma,  indicated  hunger  and  other  discomforts. 

For  two  weeks,  beginning  with  the  thirtieth,  he  always  said 
6  ta-ta,'  after  having  satisfied  his  hunger. 

Fortieth    Week. — <  Nin-nin,'  indicated  hunger. 

In  the  forty-second  week  -pafa  and  mamma  were  associated, 
though  not  exclusively  with  his  parents. 

In  this  week  the  child,  while  playing  on  the  floor  at  feeding 
time,  suddenly  looked  up  and  said,  '  mamma,  nin  nin,'  thus  in- 
dicating that  he  wished  to  be  fed.  He  associated  «  don't  suck' 
with  having  his  thumb  taken  out  of  his  mouth  so  that  he  re- 
moved the  thumb  upon  hearing  the  command.  After  this  he 
learned  rapidly  to  understand  many  words  and  some  phrases. 
The  word  papa  became  a  proper  name  for  a  special  individual, 


122  KATHLEEN   CARTER   MOORE, 

but  as  late  as  the  fifty-second  week  mamma  had  been  used  only 
under  the  following  circumstances  : 

1.  When  his  mother  had  gone. 

2.  When  she  reappeared. 

3.  When  he  was  hungry. 

It  was  two  months  later  when  he  began  to  use  the  word 
ireely  in  designating  his  mother,  though  if  the  word  mamma 
were  used  in  his  hearing  he  immediately  looked  about  for  her. 

The  phrase  *  here  it  is '  came  into  use  in  the  fifty-second 
week,  accompanying  the  presence  of  something  pleasing,  and 
the  act  of  giving.  No  similar  phrase  was  acquired  prior  to  the 
eighteenth  month. 

The  words  next  added  to  the  vocabulary  were  those  indica- 
ting persons  and  individual  things  in  which  the  child  was  espe- 
cially interested.1  Dogs  had  often  been  pointed  out  to  him  and 
he  was  familiar  with  three  of  quite  different  appearance,  but  he 
used  the  word  dog  first  in  speaking  to  a  black  mongrel  which 
played  around  his  carriage  during  an  afternoon  walk.  On  the 
day  following  he  pointed  out  as  a  dog  a  St.  Bernard  and  a  small 
black  nondescript.  After  this  the  word  dog  fell  into  complete 
disuse.  It  did  not  reenter  the  vocabulary  till  six  months  had 
elapsed. 

All  the  above  examples,  with  the  exception  of  one,  are  in- 
stances in  which 'a  simple  form  of  association  by  contiguity  con- 
trolled the  reappearance  of  sounds  and  words.  Under  condi- 
tions as  similar  as  possible  sounds  were  repeated  as  similar  as 
possible  to  those  before  uttered.  In  the  exceptional  example, 
that  in  which  he  designated  as  dog  two  very  different  repre- 
sentatives of  the  type,  the  selection  of  a  name  depended  upon 
his  familiarity  with  four  other  and  dissimilar  dogs,  one  of  which 
had  only  the  day  before  impressed  the  child  exceedingly. 

In  the  fifty-eighth  week  that  period  was  ushered  in  during 
which  each  word  (except  some  proper  names)  was  given  every 
day  a  more  extended  application.  Table  VII.  gives  the  history 
of  fifteen  words  which  were  made  of  service  in  many  situations. 
Other  writers  have  discussed  the  tendency — which  seems  to  be 

1  Upon  referring  to  Table  V.  it  will  be  seen  that  all  words  in  the  vocabulary 
at  the  close  of  the  first  year  were  proper  nouns. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  123 

common  among  children — to  widen  the  application  of  every 
word,1  but  have  not,  it  seems,  found  this  tendency  to  be  char- 
acteristic of  a  limited  period  of  language  development.  By 
some  the  tendency  has  been  attributed  to  other  causes  than  the 
one  herein  described.  I  regard  it  as  the  outcome  of  a  crude 
form  of  inference.  In  the  part  of  this  work  devoted  to  the 
development  of  ideas  I  have  endeavored  to  show  what  the 
nature  of  this  inference  was.2  Here  I  shall  not  digress  from 
the  subject  in  hand ;  but  shall  try  to  show  that  the  extension  of 
the  application  of  a  word  did  not  necessarily  rest  upon  (i)  an 
uncircumscribed  concept  of  the  thing  named,  or  upon  (2)  com- 
parison and  the  perception  of  analogy. 

This  period  extended  from  the  fifty-eighth  to  the  eighty- 
fourth  week.  During  that  time  the  child  acquired  but  fifty- 
three  words,  yet  he  was  familiar  with  many  objects  and  could 
point  them  out  when  he  heard  their  names.  This  shows  that 
his  perception  of  things  exceeded  considerably  his  use  of  words. 
Though  he  called  all  men  '  papa '  for  a  short  time,  he  never 
met  a  stranger  upon  the  same  footing  of  familiarity  as  he  did 
his  father ;  and  though  he  called  all  little  girls  *  Dorothy,'  he 
never  danced  with  glee  at  their  approach,  unless  at  a  distance 
they  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  his  friend  of  that  name. 
He  always  called  a  cat  « bird,'  yet  when  he  heard  a  voice  call- 
ing «  cat !  cat ! '  he  looked  about  for  the  animal  exclaiming 
'  bird  !  bird  I '  In  these  cases  it  was  clearly  shown  that  he  did  not 
confuse  the  individuals  comprised  by  his  class  name.  What- 
ever the  quality  of  his  concept  of  each  of  the  things  named,  it 
was  not  sufficiently  vague  to  permit  of  a  fusion  of  individuals. 
We  are,  therefore,  not  justified  in  assuming  such  a  fusion  to  be 
the  basis  of  the  class  names  used  by  the  child.  If  we  look  to 
his  concept  of  the  meaning  and  use  of  words  we  shall  find  the 
real  explanation  of  this  peculiarity ;  for  it  will  then  be  seen  that 
he  by  no  means  understood  the  necessity  of  a  separate  name  for 
each  thing,  and  that  at  this  period  his  words  were  used  like  so 
many  exclamations  by  which  he  announced  the  presence  of 
what  was  interesting. 

1  See  Tracy,  Psychology  of  Childhood,  2d  ed.,  pp.  78-9,  also  Baldwin,  op. 
cit.,  p.  325. 

2 Part  III.,  p.  94. 


124  KATHLEEN   CARTER   MOORE. 

We  may  well  ask  what  influences  controlled  the  selection 
of  the  word  for  a  wider  application.  Why,  for  example,  did 
the  child  call  a  cow  <  bird,'  instead  of  *  dog,'  both  of  which 
words  were  known  to  him?  In  the  early  days  of  language  de- 
velopment each  word,  whose  faulty  pronunciation  had  been 
laboriously  acquired,  replaced  for  a  time  the  old  words  which 
for  several  days  were  scarcely  heard.  The  child  practiced  the 
new  word  when  the  object  to  which  it  referred  was  not  present, 
and  it  entered  largely  into  his  babbling  ;  it  had  an  interest  of  its 
own.  The  words  first  spoken  were  the  names  of  things  which 
had  excited  a  great  interest  in  the  child,  so  that  they  with  their 
circumstantial  setting  were  in  the  best  position  to  be  remem- 
bered. The  word  whose  application  was  extended  was  either 
the  most  recent  addition  to  the  vocabulary,  or  an  old  word  about 
which  fresh  interests  centered. 

The  child  saw  a  cow  under  circumstances  very  similar  to 
those  in  which  he  had  seen  birds  and  dogs  ;  but  bird  experiences 
were  more  recent,  bird  word  fresher,  and  thus  the  elements  of 
similarity  called  up  the  bird  series,  rather  than  the  dog  series ; 
but  the  cow,  as  the  central  figure,  was  substituted  for  the  bird, 
and  the  child  chirped  to  her,  exclaiming  *  bird  !'  Usually  the 
jump  from  one  object  to  another  designated  by  the  same  name 
was  not  so  great  as  that  from  bird  to  cow.  The  application  of 
the  word  was  extended  slowly  and  by  degrees.  It  depended 
upon  internal  association  of  a  very  primitive  form,  and  not  upon 
the  perception  of  similarity. 

If  we  regard  the  tendency  to  extend  the  application  of  words 
as  due  to  the  recall  of  sounds  previously  used  under  conditions 
of  greater  or  less  similarity,  we  are  at  once  relieved  of  the 
necessity  of  postulating  a  perception  of  analogy  as  a  funda- 
mental human  faculty.  In  Part  III.1  we  have  seen  that  the  per- 
ception of  analogy  was  a  phenomenon  of  development  depend- 
ing upon  the  formation  of  internal  associations,  and  the  conse- 
quent mental  juxtaposition  of  like  objects,  and  that  it  was 
rudimentary,  not  to  say  .unformed,  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  second  year.  We  are  therefore  not  at  liberty  to  invoke  the 
perception  of  analogy  as  a  means  of  explanation  here. 

1  p-  94- 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  125 

With  the  entrance  into  the  eighty-second  week  the  child  be- 
gan to  give  a  name  to  each  object  with  which  he  came  in  con- 
tact. If  he  did  not  know  or  recall  the  name  given  to  it  by 
others  he  invented  a  name.  A  few  of  the  coined  names  re- 
mained in  use  for  several  months  ;  others  were  used  once  or 
twice  and  forgotten.  The  following  lists  give  : 

i  .  Names  invented  and  retained  in  use  : 

lum  =  a  cat. 

bizz  =  his  own  shadow  on  the  bathroom  wall. 

bahdiz  =  a  figure  on  the  ceiling  of  a  bedroom. 

Alah  =  a  little  girl,  frequently  seen  from  across  the  street. 

2.  Words  invented,  used  only  in  one  conversation  and  for- 
gotten : 

babax  =  a  hinge. 

blebs  =  a  very  small  ledge  on  the  piano. 

piece  it  =  to  break  a  piece  off,  to  break  into  pieces. 

3.  Often,  finding  it  necessary  to  have  a  name,  he  babbled 
some  jumble  of  sounds,  as  it  were,  gathered  together  for  the 
occasion  and  soon  forgotten. 

bane, 


fe  so  back  6  are  examples  of  these. 

The  custom  of  naming  each  thing  is  of  course  inconsistent 
with  that  of  classing  many  things  under  one  name  ;  therefore 
as  the  former  habit  grew  the  latter  diminished,  and  the  classes 
became  smaller  by  the  successive  subtraction  of  object  after 
object.  At  the  close  of  the  second  year  the  child  invariably 
asked  the  name  of  a  new  object,  and  was  familiar,  as  is  shown  in 
Table  VIII.,  with  the  names  of  most  common  things. 

By  the  ninety-fifth  week  his  vocabulary  having  grown  con- 
siderably, the  child  came  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  uses 
of  words.  The  method  of  acquiring  language  then  underwent 
a  radical  change.  It  became  an  imitative  process.  He  imitated 
not  only  words,  but  phrases  and  sentences  whose  meaning  he 
caught  from  observation  of  the  actions  of  his  elders.  It  was 
shortly  after  this  that  he  began  to  be  interested  in  rhymes  ;  at 
first  those  containing  familiar  words  as  landmarks,  then  any 
nursery  rhymes  or  poetry,  which  he  quickly  learned  to  reproduce. 


126  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

During  this  preeminently  imitative  period,  what  he  said  ex- 
pressed no  reflections.  Unintelligent  imitation  was  rare  though 
it  sometimes  occurred.1 

The  words  that  he  used  stood  for  visual  percepts  and  mem- 
ory images ;  his  sentences  represented  observations  on  the  ac- 
tions of  others,  or  a  running  commentary  on  his  own  perform- 
ances. 

A  little  later,  ninety-seventh  to  ninety-ninth  weeks,  he  fre- 
quently expressed  outlines  of  actions  proposed  for  himself 
and  other  persons,  thus:  "Say,  mamma,  Anna  git  a  li'  poon 
Wahn  Moh "  (Mamma  shall  say,  Anna  get  a  little  spoon  for 
Warren  Moore),  or  defined  his  own  intentions  before  beginning 
some  performance.  In  the  last  three  weeks  of  the  second  year 
the  child  began  to  use  language  to  give  the  results  of  his  reflec- 
tions.2 Language  now  assumed  the  function  of  an  instrument 
with  which  to  marshal  and  construct  concepts. 

We  have  now  briefly  reviewed  the  processes  by  which  words 
were  first  connected  with  objects,  then  used  to  signify  them, 
and  lastly  as  symbols,  substituted  for  the  reality.  Let  us  now 
turn  our  attention  to  the  vocabulary  itself,  to  inquire  how  many 
words  and  what  classes  of  words  were  used  by  the  child,  and 
what  the  order  of  acquirement  was. 

If  the  reader  will  refer  to  table  VIII.  he  will  see  that  all 
words  belonging  to  the  first  year  were  proper  nouns — the  names 
of  persons  (and  of  his  doll) — known  and  of  especial  interest  to 
the  child.  Nor  did  the  acquisition  of  proper  names  become  less 
prominent  later.  The  child  was  always  profoundly  interested 
in  people,  whether  real  or  portrayed  in  pictures.  He  quickly 
learned  a  name,  and  remembered  it  even  after  the  face  was 
forgotten.  Many  of  the  proper  names  in  the  vocabulary  per- 
tained to  pictures.  After  the  first  proper  nouns  had  been  mas- 
tered a  few  common  nouns  were  learned. 

From  the  fifty-second  to  the  eighty-second  weeks  words 
were  added  very  slowly  to  the  vocabulary.  Though  the  child 

*As  in  the  reproduction  of  rhymes  not  fully  understood;  but  here  the 
rhythm  was  doubtless  a  point  of  interest. 

2  In  the  first  weeks  of  the  third  year  he  reflected  upon  many  things  and  was 
asking  for  explanations  continually:  Where  were  the  chickens'  hands?  Where 
had  the  clouds  gone  ?  etc. 


MENTAL    DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  127 

talked  a  great  deal  he  made  a  few  words,  chiefly  nouns, 
useful  within  extended  limits.  After  the  eighty-second  week 
the  acquisition  of  nouns  proceeded  at  a  rapid  rate.  In  the  one- 
hundred-and-fifth  week  there  were  306  nouns  in  the  vocabulary, 
of  which  48  were  proper  nouns.  The  others  were  the  names 
of  common  objects ;  for  of  abstract  nouns  there  was  not  one. 

In  the  sixty-fourth  week  the  first  verb  made  its  appearance, 
gone  doing  duty  for  all  sorts  of  disappearance.  The  verbs  in 
use  before  the  eighty-ninth  week  differed  plainly  from  action 
words.  They  might  more  fitly  be  called  substantive  verbs  than 
verbs  proper.  Four  examples  will  make  my  meaning  clear. 
Gone  =  disappeared,  not  the  act  of  disappearance,  but  the  phe- 
nomenon. See  =  a  word  used  in  calling  attention  to  some- 
thing perceived  through  the  agency  of  sight  or  of  touch. 
Hark  =  a  word  used  in  calling  attention  to  a  noise.  Come  = 
I  wish  it  to  be  in  this  place.  Bye-bye  was  the  nearest  approach 
to  a  word  designating  action ;  it  was  a  term  of  vigorous  dismis- 
sal by  which  the  child  signified  refusal  to  obey,  or  his  desire 
that  an  extremely  distasteful  thing  should  go  away.1  In  these 
substantive  verbs,  which  also  partake  of  the  character  of  inter- 
jections and  may  justly  be  called  interjectional  substantive 
verbs,  we  have  what  is  really  a  transitional  form. 

In  the  ninetieth  week  the  first  action  word  proper  came  into 
use,  and  was  in  the  succeeding  weeks  followed  by  other  words 
unmistakably  verbs.  These  verbs  were  used  in  the  imperative 
form — '  sit  down' !  (you  sit  down)  *  brush  (my)  hair  !'  etc. — or 
in  describing  something  performed  or  experienced  by  the  child 
himself,  as  'fell  down'  (I  fell  down).  These  two  forms  of 
verbs  (exclamatory  and  imperative)  did  full  justice  to  the  quality 
of  the  child's  mental  attitude  during  the  period  extending  from 
the  ninety-first  to  the  ninety-eighth  weeks,  during  which  no  dis- 
tinction of  tense  was  made,  any  form  of  a  verb  which  had  been 
acquired  being  used  without  change.  With  these  two  forms  he 
was  able  to  make  known  his  wants  and  to  express  his  observa- 
tions. 

In  the  ninety-seventh  week  he  made  his  first  distinctions  of 

1  After  bye-bye  had  acquired  this  secondary  meaning  the  child  would  never 
use  it  to  a  departing  friend  whom  he  wished  to  remain. 


128  KATHLEEN   CARTER  MOORE. 

tense  ;  <  I  got'=I  have  got,  and  *  I  get'=I  shall  get.  Thereafter 
he  slowly  acquired  the  ability  to  use  the  several  forms  of  the 
verbs  and  some  of  the  auxiliaries,  did  being  the  member  of  the 
last  mentioned  class  most  frequently  heard.  Of  course  he  made 
many  blunders  in  attempting  to  transform  the  present  tense  into 
the  past,  usually  the  common  one  of  adding  ed  to  verbs  of  the 
old  conjugation.  In  the  vocabulary  noted  in  Table  VIII.  the 
parts  of  certain  verbs  are  put  down  as  separate  words ;  this  is 
because  they  were  learned  and  used  as  such  before  the  child 
had  caught  the  practice  of  using  one  word  under  several  aspects. 

A  few  interjections  also  were  used.  Such  as  helloal  and 
'da  !  da  !  (indicating  something).  Representatives  of  the  class 
of  interjections  were  among  the  earliest  words  in  the  vocabu- 
lary. 

Adjectives,  ranking  third  in  numerical  importance,  were 
fifth  in  the  order  of  acquisition.  The  adjective  first  in  use  was 
the  numeral  two  (ninety-first  week),  which  was  in  the  beginning 
correctly  employed  to  designate  two  things,  but  later  became 
a  plural  form  signifying  any  number  more  than  one  (still  just  2 
also) .  Some  of  the  adjectives  of  quality  were  at  first  used  in 
connection  with  respective  special  substantives  (awful  cough 
and  round  O,  for  example),  from  which  they  were  separated 
and  endued  with  a  meaning  which  transformed  them  into  true 
quality  words ;  others  were  added  to  the  vocabulary  by  a  pro- 
cess quite  the  reverse  of  this,  functioning  as  quality  words  from 
the  beginning.  This  was  the  history  of  big  and  new.  An  ad- 
jective was  never  used  in  any  but  the  positive  degree.1  Things 
were  compared  and  contrasted  thus  :  "  This  is  a  dirty  napkin." 
"  This  is  a  clean  napkin."2  Color  adjectives  were  the  last  to  be 
added.  Between  the  ninety-first  and  ninety-fourth  weeks  oc- 
curred the  first  numeral  (two),  the  first  pronominal  (another) 
and  the  first  undoubtedly  intelligent  use  of  an  adjective  of  qual- 
ity. I  could  not  determine  the  exact  order  of  acquisition,  be- 
cause sporadic  instances  of  the  use  of  each  had  previously  been 

*At  twenty-eight  months  he  understood  the  uses  of  the  degrees  of  compari- 
son. 

2  At  twenty-eight  months  comparison  and  contrast  became  a  favorite  exer- 
cise in  which  the  child  indulged  much.  For  example  he  would  say  :  "  That's  a 
moth.  A  very  little  moth.  Not  a  great  big  one,  iust  a  very  little  one." 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  129 

recorded,  from  which  it  was  impossible  to  conclude  anything  as 
to  their  meaning  to  the  child. 

Adverbs  of  place  occurred  early  in  the  phrases,  '  here  it  is ' 
(fifty-second  week)  and  *  where  gone?'  (seventy-sixth  week). 
The  word  here  in  the  former  phrase  had  no  separate  adverbial 
meaning,  but  the  whole  phrase,  used  as  a  single  word  was,  as  I 
have  pointed  out,  interjectional  in  character.  Later,  however, 
(ninetieth  week)  here  was  used  as  a  separate  word  and  as  a 
true  adverb  of  place.  Thus  the  adverbs,  though  far  outnum- 
bered by  the  nouns,  verbs,  and  even  by  adjectives,  antedated  all 
classes  of  words  but  interjections,  nouns  and  verbs,  albeit  the 
manner  of  use  was  difficult  to  define  in  its  early  stages.  «  Hard ' 
was  by  the  child  himself  applied  to  difficulty  in  performance. 

As  early  as  the  eightieth  week  he  was  able  to  distinguish 
between  mine  and  yours,  and  you  and  /.  It  was  not  till  the 
ninety-sixth  week  that  he  began  to  use  them.  In  the  ninety- 
seventh  week  he  substituted  /  for  Warren  (his  name) ,  and  later 
learned  to  speak  of  himself  as  he,  probably  because  he  heard 
himself  thus  spoken  of.  At  first  he  always  substituted  mine 
for  your  (z*.  e.,  mine  coat  for  your  coat),  but  this  error  he  soon 
corrected.  He  did  not  confuse  the  genders  of  the  personal  pro- 
nouns he  and  she,  and  they  were  usually  put  in  the  right  case. 

As  they  had  been  acquired  after  the  imitative  period1  had 
been  initiated,  this  is  not  surprising. 

Of  the  remaining  parts  of  speech,  classed  under  *  others'  in 
the  table,  there  is  but  little  to  say. 

The  indefinite  article  made  its  appearance  in  connection  with 
the  word  fly  as  early  as  the  sixty-fourth  week,  and  was  after- 
wards (from  ninety-fifth  week  on)  used  before  nouns,  both 
plural  and  singular,  and  before  many  verbs,  producing  a  cu- 
rious effect  in  sentences,  thus:  "  Little  Warren  a  turn  a 
pages"  (Little  Warren  turns  the  pages) .  The  definite  article 
had  not  come  into  use  at  the  close  of  the  second  year. 

The  copula  and  was  used  rarely  but  correctly  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  second  year. 

Prepositions  were  acquired  late.  The  first  use  of  one  was 
recorded  in  the  ninety-fifth  week.  Though  occasions  were  not 

1  See  above  p.  125. 


130  KATHLEEN  CARTER   MOORE. 

wanting  upon  which  a  preposition  might  easily  have  been  used, 
the  relation  of  object  to  object  was,  except  in  rare  instances, 
expressed  by  the  approximation  of  substantives,  thus — a  woman 
stands  a  door.  At  the  closing  of  the  record,  in,  on,  under ,  by 
and  beside  were  frequently  used,  though  not  always  correctly 
placed  in  the  sentence.1 

Yes  and  no  were  rarely  heard.  In  replying  to  a  question  the 
child  used  a  full  statement,  either  of  affirmation  or  of  negation. 

We  have  now  to  determine,  before  we  leave  the  subject  of 
words,  the  actual  number  of  words  in  the  vocabulary  of  the 
child,  and  the  proportional  relations  of  the  parts  of  speech 
therein  contained.  Table  VIII.  gives  the  vocabulary  in  full. 
Some  other  words  had  been  used  for  a  time  and  relinquished ; 
these  have  not  been  recorded  in  what  is  to  be  considered  a  work- 
ing vocabulary.  At  the  close  of  the  second  year  the  child  had 
in  use  475  words.  Of  these 

306  or  62.3  +  %  were  nouns. 
92  or  19.3  +  %  were  verbs. 
38  or  8  %  were  adjectives. 

14  or    2.9  +  %  were  adverbs, 
ii  or    2.3  +  %  were  pronouns. 

(  prepositions. 

14  or    2.9  +  %  were  <  interjections. 
£  conjunctions. 
475      98-6  + 

In  the  percentages  of  nouns,  verbs  and  adjectives  in  the 
vocabulary  of  the  child  there  is  a  close  agreement  with  the 
results  obtained  by  Dr.  Tracy.  I  have  said  that  the  pro- 
portion of  verbs  to  nouns  varied  at  different  times.  I  shall 
again  recur  to  this  variation  in  proportion  when  discussing  the 
development  of  the  sentence.  In  the  one-hundred-and-second 
week  I  endeavored  to  note  everything  said  by  the  child  during 
a  single  day.  At  this  time  he  used  sentences  almost  exclu- 
sively, no  longer  expressing  himself  in  single  words.  150  dif- 
ferent words  entered  into  the  construction  of  the  sentences. 
Of  these 

1This  will  receive  further  notice  under  the  sentence. 


MENTAL    DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  131 

71  or  46.6  %  were  nouns. 
40  or  26.6  %  were  verbs. 
13  or  8.6  %  were  adjectives. 

8  or    5.3  %  were  pronouns. 

7  or    4.6  %  adverbs. 
ii  or    7.3  %  other  parts  of  speech. 


150      99.0 

Here  in  the  conversation  of  the  child  there  existed  a  larger 
percentage  of  verbs  in  proportion  to  all  the  words  in  use  and 
to  the  nouns  than  in  the  vocabulary  as  a  whole.  The  follow- 
ing tables  show  the  differences  between  the  order  of  acquisi- 
tion and  that  of  the  numerical  importance  of  the  classes  of 
words  in  the  vocabulary. 

Order  of  acquisition  :  Order  of  numerical  importance  : 

1.  Nouns.  Nouns 

2.  Interjections.  Verbs. 

3.  Verbs.  Adjectives. 

4.  Adverbs.  Pronouns. 

5.  Adjectives.  Adverbs. 

6.  Articles.  Prepositions. 

7.  Pronouns.  Interjections. 

8.  Prepositions.  Conjunctions  and  articles. 

9.  Conjunctions. 


SECTION  III.— SENTENCES. 

The  first  sentence  was  uttered  in  the  sixty-sixth  week.  It 
contained  but  two  words,  i  papa  gone,'  and  was  the  product  of 
much  previous  practice  on  the  part  of  the  child,  who  had  made 
many  trials  before  he  was  able  to  pronounce  successively  the 
sounds  therein  contained.  The  simple  assertion,  exclamatory 
in  character,  was  composed  of  subject  and  predicate ;  it  was 
typical  of  all  early  sentences.  Between  the  sixty-sixth  and 
seventy-ninth  weeks  the  sentences  were  either  assertions  or  in- 
terrogations. Three  verbal  forms  sufficed  for  all.  For  the  in- 


132  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

terrogative  form  the  expression  <rsh'  (where  is  he,  she,  it?) 
was  used  in  this  way:  *  Ama  rsh?'  (grandma,  where  is  she?) 
In  announcing  the  presence  of  something  to  which  he  wished 
to  call  attention,  the  child  said  <  hVs '  (here  is)  the  object  named. 
Thus  the  child  announced  something,  exclaimed  at  its  disap- 
pearance, inquired  concerning  its  whereabouts.  These  simple 
sentences  were  fairly  complete — that  is  to  say  the  omissions,  an 
article  or  an  auxiliary  verb,  were  not  essential  parts  of  the  sen- 
tence. But  when  the  child  had  acquired  a  larger  vocabulary, 
he  broke  away  from  the  bondage  of  his  early  copies  and  launched 
freely  into  word  combinations.  The  errors  which  he  then  com- 
mitted were  still  those  of  omission,  and  the  most  glaring  of  them 
was  the  omission  of  the  verb. 

In  the  eighty-sixth  week  the  imperative  sentence  made  its 
appearance,  and  about  the  same  time  the  affirmative  or  assertive 
sentence  became  more  common.  The  interrogative  sentence 
persisted,  altered  somewhat  in  form,  but  retaining  the  meaning. 
The  one  interrogative  form  which  the  child  used  when  inquir- 
ing about  some  absent  person  or  thing  was  often  heard,  and  to 
the  one  hundred  and  second  week  remained  the  only  form  of 
question  put  by  the  child.  After  the  eighty-sixth  week  sentence- 
formation  pursued  two  paths  of  progress ;  the  one  leading 
towards  a  more  complete  expression  of  the  results  of  his  obser- 
vations of  things,  the  other  towards  the  issuance  of  many  and 
varied  commands.  As  he  was  observing  what  people  had, 
rather  than  what  they  were  doing,  it  was  natural  that  his  sen- 
tences should  have  contained  a  larger  proportion  of  nouns  and 
a  smaller  proportion  of  verbs.  The  use  of  the  emphasis  as 
well  as  word  forms  in  the  expression  of  certain  meanings  was 
very  common  with  the  child.  He  could  by  its  means  convey 
the  idea  of  something  having  taken  place  before  he  could 
change  a  verb  into  its  past  tense,  for  example:  "  Mamma 
wash  it,  all  dirty"  (his  hand).  "Mamma  wash  it,  all  dirty" 
(washed).  The  imperative  sentence  invariably  contained  the 
verb. 

Many  of  his  verbs  were  accompanied  by  a  gesture,  attitude, 
or  the  act  which  they  signified ;  for  example,  when  he  said, 
'bye-bye  come'  (meaning  do  not  come!)  he  waved  his  hand 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  A    CHILD.  133 

in  dismissal ;  if  he  said  '  back  !'  (meaning  carry  me  on  your 
back)  he  put  himself  in  an  attitude  of  readiness ;  and  when, 
after  a  meal,  he  said  *  pull  napkin'  (take  off  my  napkin),  he 
accompanied  the  command  by  a  steady  pull  at  the  article  in 
question.  The  accompaniment  of  a  sentence  by  an  action  of 
some  sort  was  the  rule  till  about  the  ninety-eighth  week.  In 
the  recitation  of  past  experiences  and  in  those  speech  forms  by 
which  he  gave  expression  to  the  results  of  his  reflections,  ges- 
tures were  not  introduced.  During  the  utterance  of  the  sen- 
tences in  which  the  child  proposed  some  course  of  action  for 
himself  he  maintained  the  attitude  of  one  who  is  ready  to  act 
the  moment  he  has  finished  speaking.  Here  we  come  upon  an 
illustration  of  that  intimate  relationship  of  mental  to  bodily  ac- 
tivity which  is  so  apparent  in  childhood. 

Leaving  the  first  simple  sentences  constructed  upon  a  few 
unaltered  models,  and  coming  to  that  period  in  which  the  sen- 
tence became  more  varied,  we  find  it  necessary  to  frame  some 
definition  of  a  sentence  before  it  is  possible  to  pursue  the  his- 
tory of  its  development.  Words  were  combined  in  such  a  va- 
riety of  ways,  so  utterly  without  parallel  in  the  usages  of  syn- 
tax, that  I  was  oftentimes  at  a  loss  when  trying  to  get  these 
combinations  into  a  system  of  classification  which  should  place 
them  in  line  with  adult  speech  constructions. 

I  have  taken  as  my  definition  of  a  sentence  any  combination 
of  words  whatsoever,  beyond  the  simple  naming  of  an  object  of 
sense.  This  definition  allows  of  the  inclusion  of  those  transi- 
tional sentence  forms  which  are  intermediate  between  the 
stages  of  naming  and  of  describing.  The  following  series  of 
sentences  will  illustrate  my  meaning.  The  child  perceives  his 
mother  sitting  down  reading  a  book ;  he  exclaims  : 

i.  Book. 

Later  2.  Mamma  book. 

"        3.  Mamma  sit  down,  a  book. 

"        4.  Mamma  sit  down,  read  a  book. 

"        5.  Mamma  is  sitting  down,  reading  a  book. 

Now  No.  2  could  not,  according  to  the  rules  of  English 
grammar,  correctly  be  termed  a  sentence ;  yet  I  have  ventured 


134  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

to  call  it  such,  because  it  represents  a  complication  of  thought 
from  which  springs  a  more  complex  expression  than  the  one 
used  by  the  child  when,  by  a  name,  he  indicated  the  presence 
of  an  object. 

To  recur,  however,  to  the  construction  of  the  sentence,  we 
may  ask  what  formed  the  predicate  in  those  sentences  from 
which  the  verb  was  omitted.  The  sentences  consisted  of  nouns 
so  arranged  as  to  express  some  striking  relation  between  the 
objects  to  which  they  referred.  One  of  the  nouns  was  the  sub- 
ject ;  by  the  others  was  made  known  the  connection  in  which 
the  subject  at  the  time  was  seen  to  be.  They  therefore  con- 
stituted the  predicate.  Examples  of  such  sentences  are  : 

6  Man,  cow  '  (a  man  on  a  horse) .  *  Mamma,  a  man,  bottle  ! ' 
(Mamma,  see  the  man  with  bottles). 

The  child  often  expressed  his  observations  in  sentences  with- 
out verbs,  and  in  those  beginning  with  the  word  see,  thus  :  «  See 
biscuit  mamma  hand '  (see  the  biscuit  in  mamma's  hand) . 

In  the  ninety-seventh  week  there  was  a  rapid  increase  in  the 
number  of  verbs  corresponding  to  a  close  watchfulness  of  the 
actions  of  other  persons  and  the  growing  habit  of  translating 
these  into  such  language  as  he  could  command.  In  sentences 
constructed  at  this  time  one  and  two  verbs  often  occurred. 
There  was  also  some  attempt  at  producing  an  agreement  of 
tense  and  person.  Qualifying  words  made  their  appearance ; 
some  were  adjectives  qualifying  the  subject;  some  were  ad- 
verbs assisting  in  the  predicate. 

The  qualifying  words  first  introduced  (excepting  adverbs  of 
place)  were  adjectives  used  to  qualify  the  subject,  such  as  : 
*  There  goes  two  little  boys.'  '  Warren's  apple  is  good.'  Before 
the  ninety-fifth  week  the  sentences  were  all  very  simple,  each  con- 
taining only  one  statement ;  but  in  the  ninety-fifth  week  he  be- 
gan to  make  some  attempts  at  compound  sentences  containing 
two  statements  or  two  commands.  The  second  statement  of  the 
compound  sentence  might  or  might  not  contain  a  verb.  An  ex- 
ample of  these  first  compound  sentences  is,  '  Mamma  sit  down, 
rubbers  on,'  (mamma  sit  down,  put  your  rubbers  on).  The 
example  contains  one  subject  who  is  to  perform  two  separate 
acts.  A  sentence  sometimes  occurred  in  which  there  were  two 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  135 

subjects  and  two  predicates.  Such  a  one  was  composed  of 
two  simple  statements,  sometimes,  but  rarely,  united  by  the 
copula  and  ;  sentences  did  not  become  more  complex  than  this 
during  the  second  year. 

He  never  used  one  of  the  responsives  alone  in  reply  to  an 
interrogation.1  His  replies  to  all  questions  consisted  in  a  state- 
ment, usually  a  complete  repetition  of  the  question  cast,  by  the 
emphasis  upon  certain  words,  in  an  affirmative  or  negative  form. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  second  year  he  began  to  use  yes  and 
no  in  connection  with  the  full  statement,  as  :  '  Yes,  I  did  go  for 
a  walk.'  '  No,  I  can't  find  my  pencil.'  In  the  ninety-ninth  and 
one-hundredth  weeks  the  frequent  introduction  of  adjectives, 
adverbs  and  prepositions  began  to  give  to  the  sentence  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  more  complete. 

Of  the  position  of  the  various  words  in  the  sentence  there  is 
but  little  to  be  said.  Such  words  as  the  sentence  contained  were 
almost  invariably  in  the  proper  sequence,  though  the  omission 
of  the  many  small  words  brought  about  some  unusual  and  awk- 
ward effects  due  to  the  proximity  of  those  parts  of  speech  which 
we  are  not  wont  to  hear  together.  There  was,  however,  a  pecu- 
liarity of  construction  in  which  the  preposition  figured  as  the 
chief  agent  of  modification.  It  has  elsewhere  been  said  that 
before  the  introduction  of  the  preposition  the  relation  of  object 
to  object,  which  should  be  expressed  by  the  interposition  of  a 
preposition  between  the  names,  was  indicated  by  the  juxtaposi- 
tion of  the  names.  When  the  preposition  was  introduced,  in- 
stead of  being  placed  between  the  two  nouns,  it  was  tacked  on 
to  the  end  of  the  sentence.  This  happened  particularly  to  the 
prepositions  in  and  on.  '  See  little  cup  dish  on'  is  an  example 
of  the  construction.  In  this  example  the  verb  see  occurs ;  but 
a  further  peculiarity  of  his  use  of  the  preposition  was  the  omis- 
sion of  the  verb  from  the  same  sentence,  as  if  the  preposition 
stated  all  that  was  necessary  concerning  the  nouns.  '  Mamma, 
monkey  glasses  on,'  and  '  little  hand  hole  in, '  are  two  illustra- 
tions. In,  on  and  other  prepositions  were  also  used  in  the  cus- 
tomary manner,  which  gradually  superseded  the  odd  construction 
of  which,  in  the  one-hundred-and-fifth  week,  I  found  no  trace. 

xThe  use  of  the  responsives  became  customary  in  the  twenty-eighth  month. 


136  KATHLEEN  CARTER  MOORE. 

Averages  obtained  from  numbers  of  sentences  noted  at  dif- 
ferent periods  indicate  some  few  points  well.  163  sentences, 
each  typical,  and  the  whole  forming  a  progressive  series  which 
began  in  the  sixty-sixth  and  ended  in  one-hundred-and-fifth 
week  contained  in  all  661  words,1  an  average  of  4.05  -f  words 
to  a  sentence.  43.4  %  of  the  661  words  were  things  talked  of,  or 
nouns  or  pronouns.  This  allows  an  average  of  1.82  -j-  nouns 
and  pronouns  to  a  sentence.  24.8  -f-  %  of  the  words  were 
verbs,  giving  an  average  of  1.06  -f  verbs  to  a  sentence,  consid- 
erably more  than  half  the  number  of  nouns.  The  proportion  be- 
comes a  striking  one  when  compared  with  percentages  of  nouns, 
pronouns  and  verbs  in  the  vocabulary  as  a  whole ;  for  we  then 
perceive  that  the  number  of  verbs  at  the  child's  command  was 
less  than  one-third  the  number  of  nouns  and  pronouns,  but 
when  it  came  to  a  question  of  use,  the  number  of  verbs  em- 
ployed rose  to  more  than  half  the  number  of  nouns  and  pro- 
nouns employed.  A  similarly  striking  proportion  occurs  in 
favor  of  adverbs,  which  comprised  9.5  +  %  of  the  661  words, 
or  an  average  of  0.38  -f  adverbs  to  a  sentence,  as  compared 
with  a  percentage  of  2.9  representing  the  adverbs  in  the  vocab- 
ulary. With  adjectives  the  proportional  relations  are  somewhat 
different,  for  they  constituted  but  7.4  %  of  the  words  (8  %  of 
the  vocabulary)  and  averaged  0.28  -f  to  a  sentence;  3.7  %  of 
the  words  were  prepositions.  The  remaining  n.8  %  consisted 
of  the  indefinite  article,  a  few  interjections  and  an  occasional 
conjunction. 

On  a  certain  day  in  the  ninety-sixth  week  I  noted  124  of  the 
primitive  sentences,  and  once  again  in  the  one  hundred  and 
second  week  138  sentences  were  noted.  In  Table  IX.  the  re- 
sults of  a  study  of  these  sentences  are  arranged  in  a  form  to 
facilitate  comparison.  It  will  be  seen  that  many  of  the  tenden- 
cies are  here  illustrated  which  have  been  referred  to  above  in  the 
discussion  of  the  development  of  the  sentence,  and  of  the  grad- 
ual introduction  of  classes  of  words  used  in  forms  of  construc- 
tion. It  will  be  seen  that  the  verb  came  rapidly  to  the  front  as 
a  factor  in  the  sentence-formation.  There  is  also  a  pronounced 
increase  in  the  average  number  of  words  to  a  sentence,  traceable 

xNot  66 1  different  words. 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF  A    CHILD.  137 

to  the  introduction  of  words  of  all  classes,  but  especially  to  that 
free  use  of  the  indefinite  article  which  has  already  been  noticed. 
From  this  table  we  shall  learn,  also,  that  the  percentage  of 
words  of  a  class  contained  in  the  vocabulary  is  but  an  indif- 
ferent index  of  the  frequency  with  which  representatives  of  the 
class  are  brought  into  active  service.  This  was  made  clear  in 
the  case  of  prepositions,  whose  number,  five,  is  equal  in  the 
two  vocabularies,  while  the  sentences  of  the  one-hundred-and- 
second  week  contained  a  proportional  increase  of  44%  of  prep- 
ositional constructions.  The  indefinite  article  furnishes  a  fur- 
ther illustration  of  this  point ;  for  in  the  sentences  of  the  one-hun- 
dred and-second  week  its  employment  was  found  to  have  made  a 
proportional  increase  of  45  %  over  the  sentences  of  the  ninety- 
sixth  week. 


138 


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TABLE  V. — SUBSTITUTION  OF  SOUNDS. 


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INDEX. 


Abstraction 29,  97,  106 

Action,  accompanying   speech  .    .  132 

Actions,  habitual 9 

"          voluntary 27 

"         renewal  of 44 

survival  of 44 

Activity 42 

Adaptations 9,  59 

Adjustments 77 

Adjectives  .    .    .  in,  128,  130,  134,  136 
Adjustment,    of   eye   muscles,    see 
eye. 

Adverbs 129,  130,  136 

Analogy 90,  93 ,  94,  123 

Anticipation 53 

Apperceived  system 94,  95 

Apperception 86,  87 

"  masses 86 

"  and  perception  ...    87 

Arm    movements,    see    grasping, 
etc. 

Articles 129,  131,  137 

Assimilation 86,  87 

Association  .  20,  21,  28,  30,  48,  69,  85 

91,  92,  108,  116,  120 

contiguity  .   .    .93,  94,  122 

internal 94,  124 

similarity 92 

Associations,  series  of  ...  52,  86,  96 

Associative  links 44,  85 

Attention   ....  45,  52>  54>  59>  86  87 

Attitude,  foetal 21 

Attitudes 

"         pre-natal 20 

•'        post-natal 20 

Auditory  sensations  ....  63,  70,  71 

Automatism 10,  29 

Awakening 40 

"         day  of 6 

B 
Babbling 68,  115 


Choice 30 

Clasping 20,  21 

Color 46,  53 

"  sensations 53 

Comfort 15,  43 

Comparison 91 

"  and  contrast 128 

Concepts 29,  123 

"        and   language  .    .    .  123,  126 


Confusion  of  sensations  .    .  14,  58,  77 

of  sounds 69,  119 

Conjunctions 130 

Contact,  sensations  of 20 

Contrast 77 

Consciousness 43,  44,  72,  89 

Convergence,  see  eye. 

Coordinations 55 

Copula 129,  135 

Creeping 5,  7,  25,  90 


Deliberation 30 

Depth 97,  no 

Desire 28,  29,  43 

Development    ........  2,  43 

individual   ....  44,  52 

movement   and  direc- 
tion   of 4 

periods  of 4,  90 

Differentiation  of  sensations  ...    22 

Direction 97,  107,  in 

"        of   the   gaze 57 

Discomfort 15,  43 

Discrimination    .  14,  53,  68,  71,  91,  93 
"  and  perception  .  53,  68 

Distance 97,  107 

"        estimation  of 49 

"         and   pitch 67 

"        and  sound,  see  sound. 
Distinction 69,  71,  77,  89 


Ear 71 

Emotions 37,  89 

Emphasis 132 

Environment 44 

Error 94 

Errors  in  interpretation  ....  69,  96 

Excitement  in  pleasure 37 

"  in  displeasure    ....    37 

Experiences    ....  85,  86,  87,  89,  93 

Experimentation 2,  82,  92 

Expression,  emotional     ....  10,  37 

Expressive  actions 30,  31 

Eye,  adjustments 51,  55,  56 

"     convergence  of  axes   ....    45 

"     focus 45 ,  56 

"     movements 45,  55,  58 


Facial  expression 40 

Faculties 87 

Falling,  fear  of 33 ,  42 


147 


148 


INDEX. 


Feeling 4,  22,  78 

"         and  sounds 121 

Feet,    use  of 17,  22 

Fixation 56 

Focus,  see  eye. 

Following  with  the  eyes 45 

Food  .       79,  82 

Functions 44 


Generalization 96,  97 

Gestures 30 

Grasping 16,  20,  79 

H 

Habit    .    .    .    .  2,  10,  12,  21,  29,  85,  87 

"      mental 96,  97 

"      personal 12 

Hand  and  arm  movements  ....     15 

Hearing,  development  of 71 

"         observations 60 

Hedonic  element 15 

Height no 

Holding 20 


Idea 22,  28,  85,  90,  93,  98 

class  ideas 92,  95 

"     development  of  an  .    .    .      85,  98 

"     formation 85,  95 

Ideas  and  words 95 

Identity 93 

Imagination 94 

Imitation,  conscious.  23,  30,  32,116,  125 

Indirect  vision, 52,  53,  55 

Individual  development,  see  devel- 
opment. 

Induction 97 

Inference 30,  93,  94,  123 

Inheritance 44 

Inhibition 32 

Insensibility  to  sounds    .    .    .    .  61,  63 

Instinct 55 

"         definition  of 9,  43 

"         race 9 

Instinctive  acts 43,  44 

Intensities,  relative  of  sensations  .    51 
54.  7o,  81 

Interest    .    .    , 45,  89 

Interjections 127,  128,  130 

interpretation  of  sounds 69 

Interpretations 72,  94 


Language 95,  115 

Language,  understanding  of   .  .    .121 

Light  sensations 51,  53 

Local  signs 78 

Locality 50 

Localization  of   sound 66 

"  and   touch 77 


M 

Magnitude 97,  107,  in 

Melody 65 

Memory  .    .  53,  69,  85,  87,  92,  in,   114 

of  sounds 68 

images 91,  126 

personal 86,  87 

Mental  activity 89,  121,  133 

correlatives 44 

development 85 

elaboration 89,  98 

image      90 

integration 98 

representative    .  28,  87,  90,  96 

survival 89 

synthesis 78,  90,  96 

type 91 

Method,  of   observation 2 

Motor  discharge 96 

"       impulse 55 

Movement,  sensations,  see  touch. 

Movements,    . 8,  85,  97 

accessory  to  seeing  .  56,  57 

automatic 8,  35 

development  of  ...  8 
of  expression  ....  37 
of  eyes,  see  eye. 

impulsive 8 

inhibitory 8,  32 

instinctive 8,  59 

habitual 8,  35 

range  and  direction  of  44 

rapid :    .    34 

reflex 8,  10,  42 

reproduced 77 

selection  of 9 

spontaneous  .    .    .  8,  9,  40 

survival  of u 

transformation  of  .  n,  31 
voluntary  .    .  8,  23,  35,  72 
Muscular  sensations 20 

N 

Names 95,  121,  123 

Nervous  system 44 

Nouns 126,  130,  134,  136 


Objects 44,  58,  90,  96 

Observations 126 

"          method   of   .....      2 

Observed i 

Observer  .  i 


Pain 80 

"     localization 80 

"     sensibility 81 

Perception  .  21,  28,  51,  55,  58,  88,  67,  89 
"         see  discrimination. 
"         and  apperception     ...    87 


INDEX. 


149 


Perception  of  distance 107 

of  direction 107 

of  the  hand, etc 21 

history  of 59 

requisite  of 59 

and  sensation 58 

of   things  seen  .    .    .  45,  58 

of  small  objects  ....    55 

Perceptions  of  sight  and  touch  .    .    82 

Periodicity 106 

Persistence 30 

Personal  memory,  see  memory. 

"  habit 12 

Perverseness 27,  31 

Pictures 50,  60,  112 

Pitch  and  distance 67 

Pleasure 43,  54,  91 

Prepositions 129,  135,  136 

Pressure 78 

Progress,    rate   of 6 

Pronouns 129,  130,  136 

Pupils  of  eyes 45 


Rate  of   movement n 

Reaching 16,  97 

Reaction  time II 

Reactions 51,  85,  89 

inherent 72,  88 

and  sensations  .    .    .  51,54,  58 

"  and   touch 72 

Reason,  see  inference,  etc. 

Recall 86,  92,  124 

Recognition 52,  71,  89,  93 

Recognition  of  sounds    .    .    .    .67,  119 

of  a  tune 67 

Recognitions  of  touch 82 

Reconstruction 93,  94 

Reflections 126 

Reflex  movements 42 

Repose 35 

Representation  .    .    .  29,  90,  91,  93,  96 

Reproduction 93 

Response 130,  135 

Restlessness 42 

Retentiveness 92 

Rhymes 65,  125 

Rhythm 65 

S 

Satisfaction 28,  43 

Seeing  near  and  far 56 

Sensation,    auditory 63 

"             and  distinction     ...    89 
pleasant   and   unpleas- 
ant     70 

"  quality  of 51,  71 

relative  intensities,  see 

intensities. 

and  reactions,  see  reac- 
tions. 


Sensation,    simple 52,  58 

"  visual 45,  53 

Sensations    .    .    .52,  53,  55,  58,  85,  96 

Sensibility  to  sounds 64,  71 

Sensory  apparatus 86 

Sentence,  the 126,  130,  131 

compound 134 

Sequence 106 

Sight,  see  vision,  etc. 

Sit 90 

Size,  see  magnitude. 

"      estimation   of 49 

Sleep 35,  64 

Smell •    •  82,  83 

Smile 40 

Sound  and   distance 66 

"        and  habit 64 

Sounds 68,  115,  121 

"         conscious    imitation  of  .    .116 

Space 107 

Speech  forms,  multiplication  of  . 
Spontaneous  movements  .  11,40,44  56 
Stages  of  mental  development  .    .    89 
Stimuli  susceptibility  to    influence 

of   .....* 58 

Structures, 44 

Substitution  of  sounds 118 

Sucking  the  thumb 12 

"  "          variations      .    .     13 

effects    ....    13 

Suckling 64 

Suggestion     .  30,  35,  77,  81,  85,  91,  94 

Survival  of   actions 44 

"  movements 44 

Synthesis,  see  mental. 


Taste 82 

Tear   secretion 37 

Temperature 80 

Tickling 79 

Time,  perception  of 106 

"       reaction n 

Tongue,  movements    of 115 

Touch 72 

"        and       movement       sensa- 
tions   20,  79 

"         organs  of 79 

"         sensations   and  reactions  .  72 

"         sensibility 79 

Transformation,  see  movements. 


Verbs 127,  130,  136 

Visual   coordinations 9 

Vocabulary 7,  116,  120,  126 

Voice 38,  40,  115,  121 

Volition,  see  voluntary  movements. 
Voluntary   movements,  see   move- 
ments. 


150  INDEX. 

Voluntary  movements,  classes  of  .    29  W 

44  observations    '       Walking 6,  26,  90 

on     ...    23       Words 95,  116,  120,  136 

stages  of    .    29          "        application  of     ....  94,  122 
"         coined 125 


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